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Aboard Celebrity Reflection, 7n E. Caribbean Out of Fort Lauderdale .... Watching Celebrity's Masking Policy.


JeffB

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We're on day 5/7 headed to Nassau after departing St. Croix, USVI about an hour ago. Several itinerary changes - Nassau for Key West and St. Croix for San Juan, PR. Going with the flow and wearing a mask indoors. We're B2B departing on 7n W. Caribbean on Saturday 02/12. I suspect we'll still be in a mask indoors protocol until the 15th (day 3 of the second cruise). Maybe not. Celebrity has had a slightly different overall approach to SARS2 than RCL (went with 98% vax rates and no test cruises. Accordingly, Celebrity ships could generally have a nigher vax rate and reduced risk of spread).

Would be neat if Celebrity, based on reduced risk, went with no masks indoors to start the 7n W. Caribbean sailing on reflection out of Fort Lauderdale on 2/12 instead of waiting until the 15th. The reasoning there would be to reduce guest confusion by not changing mask protocols mid-cruise. Makes sense but I'm not hopeful nor concerned. I willing comply with whatever is required to cruise. I'll post again after I find out.

This is our 4th sailing on Reflection. It's the newest of Silhouette Class ships (2018) and reflects an evolution in that class. Reflection has the usual Celebrity specialty dining for this class and adds some length and a larger Retreat area (Suites). We booked a Veranda, 2C nearly 2y ago but not on refelction and it's been cancelled 2X. Once in 2020, 21 and moved to 2022 on Reflection. We had planned and booked the same cabins for the B2B on deck 6. When we checked in, we were informed we had been "upgraded." Not really. Just moved to the 9th deck. No explanation and our bags tagged for 6156. Guest services fixed that, our bags showed up in our new cabin and they insured we had the same cabin for both cruises. We learned on entering our cabin on deck 9 that a cabin attendant had not yet been assigned. 

This is an example of having to be flexible and not losing your patience when things change. This could have been a cluster (bags, no cabin attendant assigned, back to back) but it wasn't. The change was due to Celebrity's use of cabins on deck 6 for isolation of crew members. That policy started in mid 2021 so, I would have thought Celebrity would have made the change for any guests on that deck and we'd have been informed earlier than we were. Our cabin attendant specifically assigned to our cabin arrived on day 3. We still had service but it was performed by attendants doing double duty. 

We did speak with the Hotel Manager. He dutifully took notes but we never got any feedback which is unlike Celebrity. Not to worry and I'm willing to be tolerant of this sort of thing during the pandemic. A bottle of wine would have been nice though. 

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An update ...... the B2B process between our two cruises went off smoothly. For those familiar with Port Everglades you'll know that Terminal 24 is RCL's and 25, right across the street is Celebrity's. Reflection is birthed at Terminal 29. It's old, far away from parking but seemed to handle embarkation and debarkation easily. Still a bit weird feeling as Terminal 25 is new and filled with technology that's not available in terminal 29. Most notably the facial recognition technology for C&BP that speeds passage through that check point considerably. It was done by one agent viewing each of the 50 or so B2B'ers passports manually. Took a while.

One of the frustrating aspects of cruising the pandemic inflicted Caribbean is port cancellations. A new one to me is ship sponsored tour cancellations. When the only way to leave the ship is on a ship's curated tour, experiencing a cancellation of a ship's tour you booked can be a bummer. It happened once on our first 7n itinerary and again today on the 2nd. Both, ostensibly, for operational considerations on the part of the tour operator. We were offered alternatives at a dicounted price but we're picky about itineraries and the number of people on a tour. None of the alternatives were appealing.

We're in Falmouth, Jamaica today ...... stuck on the ship in a port that does not allow debarking except for with a ship's tour. We've not been to Jamaica in a long time so, were looking forward to this tour. The immediate port area is beautiful and looks new - like built in the last 1-2 years. It's frustrating to not get off and walk around in this nice area. 

It's just another pandemic related inconvenience where patience and a good deal of tolerance is required of the ports and cruise lines. Arm yourselves for unexpected cancellations of tours you book sponsored by the cruise ship you are on. One positive thing to consider is that if you are able to debark and book tours independently, right now, with vendors short of cash and potentially skipping or putting off necessary maintenance, you might want to think twice about going it alone. If your transport breaks down during your independent tour, the ship's not waiting for you to get back aboard. Normally, this would be a minimal concern. These days, maybe not.

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