Celebrity Cruise - Caribbean April 2022

[joandwayne]

Hi
I’fe booked a Caribbean cruise for April 2022 - Celebrity Reflection 9 night Eastern Caribbean cruise on 9th April - and I’m completely confused re the requirements for boarding the cruise. I’m aware of the requirements for entering and leaving the US. But does the rest to enter US not count as my test to join the cruise?
I’ve searched Celebrity cruise website but I’m no less confused.

1. What are current requirements to enter and leave US?
2. What are requirements to join the cruise?
3. Can I visit all of the Ports of Call or do we have to stay on the ship?
4. Are masks required on board the ship?
Thanks

[2point]

We're not on Celebrity but have Cunard booked for mid Feb and Royal Caribbean for end of March.

Entry to the US is just a supervised LFT/PCR, either in person or by video(this was 2 days before, now changed to 1 day before).
To leave you need an LFT/PCR to get on the flight(this is 2 days before) and a rebooked PCR test to put on your locator form to return.

Joining the cruise - varies line by line and changing rapidly. Given the rise in cases on the two cruise lines I'm going on what is correct today could be totally different come next week, never mind April. Check out the boards on Cruise Critic - you should be able to see some detail on the current protocols.

Ports of Call - a good few ships have been refused entry altogether. I'm making the assumption that we'll be on the ship for the duration of the cruise. Any deviation from this may be a bonus but we were not too bothered anyway.

Masks - all seem to be mandating masks inside. We were on a staycation cruise in October and this did not detract from the experience at all - with the aircon on board it was totally comfortable to wear masks while moving about (mostly from bar to bar!)

I think all the cruise lines are testing you as you board - so you go the port, get tested, get result - a 15 minute process. Most people seem to be getting on board within 90 minutes of arriving at the port.

[MrsBC]

Were doing a Princess cruise in the Caribbean in March. We need to have tests done within 1 day of flying from the UK and within 2 days of boarding the cruise.
We fly into Miami (Saturday) which is the day before the cruise (Sunday), so we plan to have LFT tests at LHR on the Friday afternoon which will cover us for both requirements. You also need to complete a Passenger Disclosure and Attestation form online before flying.
Princess will test passengers who need a 'fit to fly home' test.
You also need to book PCR tests to do within 48 hours of arriving back in the UK. You need the numbers of these tests to put on the Passenger Locator forms which you fill in before flying home. (Quite easy, we did it from France last month).

[Pootle]

We disembarked Celebrity Apex on Saturday at Fort Lauderdale and were surprised to learn there were approximately 30 Brits on board given the hurdles involved! The ship was only one-third full which made for a wonderful cruise on a stunning ship. Apparently they had had 500 passengers cancel in the week before we sailed.

As well as the supervised LFT, which we pre-booked and did at LGW the day before our flight and uploaded the results to Verifly. I’m not the most tech-savvy person, but I managed.

We were spending time in Florida before our cruise and took Qured kits for videoing our LFTs by phone 2 days before embarkation. The hotel printed out our certificates for us. Qured operates in the US too, but it’s cheaper to buy the test kits in the UK and take them with you.

Before we return home at the end of the month we must complete a Passenger Locator form, which as I write, still requires a Day 2 Covid test to be paid for so that verification code can be inserted on the form. I have read this is likely to change by the end of the month, so could be I’ve wasted £20 on those.

When we arrived here we were told by the Government that we needed a negative (paid for but not supervised) LFT test to fly home. That’s now gone so more money wasted as we brought those tests with us too.

Keeping up with all of this has been a bit stressful TBH.

As far as the ports of call are concerned, unless you are travelling with children then you were allowed to leave the ship on your own. Those with children could go on ship’s tours only.

Our itinerary changed because Key West and Grand Cayman - 2 of my favourite ports, were substituted. Unlike the previous week’s cruise, we were permitted to dock in Nassau. I understand they were prevented from doing so because the Covid rate on board exceeded 1%.

Anything else, just ask.

[2point]

Thanks for the update. Got our fingers crossed for RC end of March 2022.