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Anyone Skipping Excursions until Coronavirus Gets Better?


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We just want to cruise and really hoping we can make our Anthem cruise in December.  This cruise stops are Nassau, Port Canaveral and CoCo Cay so nothing overly exciting.  We just have the CoCo Cay waterpark booked at this time.  Normally we would have booked Kennedy Space Centre at Port Canaveral but thinking this is not a good idea with everything, and especially during Christmas time when it may be extra busy (and with current Florida numbers).  And not too much in Nassau that interests us.  So...that means just one stop in a 7 night cruise.

We are all vaccinated but trying to limit risk of testing positive (and for us, we need to get back to Canada).  If borders are open by December, then we are even thinking of doing the 9hr drive (vs 1.5 hr flight) to avoid flying...and so it's easier to return in the worst scenario.  

We cruise more for the ship than the ports anyways so it's not so crazy for us, but anyone else limiting excursions until covid gets better?  

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Yes.

We're due to sail on Harmony in 6 weeks' time and are undecided as to whether or not to do any excursions. Since we are all vaxed we are able to do our own thing in our one Spanish port of call but the three Italian ones require ship-sponsored excursions. Bearing in mind that Harmony is not sailing 100% vaxed that brings in an added layer of concern because of the potential to be sharing an excursion with an unvaxed passenger who subsequently tests positive and perhaps causes us to be quarantined.

As it happens, in this particular case, we are also going more for the ship than the ports so we may well decide simply not to get off at all. We're still on the fence at the moment.

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59 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Yes.

We're due to sail on Harmony in 6 weeks' time and are undecided as to whether or not to do any excursions. Since we are all vaxed we are able to do our own thing in our one Spanish port of call but the three Italian ones require ship-sponsored excursions. Bearing in mind that Harmony is not sailing 100% vaxed that brings in an added layer of concern because of the potential to be sharing an excursion with an unvaxed passenger who subsequently tests positive and perhaps causes us to be quarantined.

As it happens, in this particular case, we are also going more for the ship than the ports so we may well decide simply not to get off at all. We're still on the fence at the moment.

I didn't even think of that....with ship sponsored excursions and others in the group testing positive.  

Hope you enjoy Harmony cruise coming up pretty soon.  It's a great ship that at least you can enjoy if staying on the ship.

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29 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

I didn't even think of that....with ship sponsored excursions and others in the group testing positive.  

Hope you enjoy Harmony cruise coming up pretty soon.  It's a great ship that at least you can enjoy if staying on the ship.

I probably wouldn't have thought of it either but it actually happened to a The Points Guy reporter who sailed on one of the first Celebrity sailings, which is what drew my attention to the possibility. Everyone else who was on the same excursion as the person who tested positive was tested and confined to their room until the results all came back. Luckily on that occasion they all tested negative but it does give some cause for concern. ?

Harmony is a great ship. We actually sailed on her for the exact same week five years ago during her inaugural season, so we've come full circle! ?

She should have left Barcelona about an hour ago for her first re-start cruise, so we will be watching closely to see how that goes. Fingers crossed.

We have never sailed on Anthem or any of the ships in that class, although we hope to at some point. We had planned on doing her spring transatlantic this year but of course covid put paid to that. ?

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We've definitely had a lot of conversations about booking private excursions with just us or ensuring that we're booking through operators that keep group sizes very small. I'm also not interested in doing excursions with unvaccinated people, no offence to anyone who has made that choice. But especially with European excursions that's a long day in close quarters. It's definitely a little nerve wracking.

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3 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

We cruise more for the ship than the ports anyways so it's not so crazy for us, but anyone else limiting excursions until covid gets better?  

We were planning on excursions for both of our port days, but since one port got moved and our excursion for the other got canceled, we're considering it as a sign that we should just stay on the ship both of those days. We still have our floating cabana booked for Coco Cay, and that should be enough for everyone. There are several onboard activities that my kids are still interested in, so that's what we'll be doing on those days instead.

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2 hours ago, FionaMG said:

I probably wouldn't have thought of it either but it actually happened to a The Points Guy reporter who sailed on one of the first Celebrity sailings, which is what drew my attention to the possibility. Everyone else who was on the same excursion as the person who tested positive was tested and confined to their room until the results all came back. Luckily on that occasion they all tested negative but it does give some cause for concern. ?

Harmony is a great ship. We actually sailed on her for the exact same week five years ago during her inaugural season, so we've come full circle! ?

She should have left Barcelona about an hour ago for her first re-start cruise, so we will be watching closely to see how that goes. Fingers crossed.

We have never sailed on Anthem or any of the ships in that class, although we hope to at some point. We had planned on doing her spring transatlantic this year but of course covid put paid to that. ?

Yikes.  Definitely something to consider as a possibility.

We lost our Harmony cruise due to covid (but loved Symphony which is similar)....and this Anthem cruise is a re-book of March 2020.  For that one, we had KSC booked, but not this time (and funny enough, it's not even an option for our Anthem booking next year....which is a backup if Dec doesn't work).  Hopefully you'll get to rebook that Transatalntic sometime.

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1 hour ago, VoidoftheSeas said:

We were planning on excursions for both of our port days, but since one port got moved and our excursion for the other got canceled, we're considering it as a sign that we should just stay on the ship both of those days. We still have our floating cabana booked for Coco Cay, and that should be enough for everyone. There are several onboard activities that my kids are still interested in, so that's what we'll be doing on those days instead.

Sounds then like we are not the only ones. And that's what I'm thinking for our kids....and us...too.

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I am skipping excursions, I feel like at least for now the ship is my destination. I just want to get back to cruising. Maybe if it was an Alaskan or European cruise I would feel different but since my first few sailings are eastern/western Caribbean, I think I will just get off and give the locals some business. Plus CocoCay with limited capacity is going to be amazeballs.

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I had planned an excursion on our recent Anthem cruise in Belfast, until RCI changed the rules to only allow RCI-organised excursions, thus vastly increasing the cost, so we stayed on board in both Belfast and Liverpool. I was disappointed but glad RCI were taking Covid seriously and trying to keep infections onboard to a minimum by keeping passengers in their vaccinated "bubbles" whilst on shore.

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