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Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
#250495
03/19/2021 11:46 AM
03/19/2021 11:46 AM
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 3,205 Newtown , PA
bettenan
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OP
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Posts: 3,205
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I just got this email from the CEO of Celebrity Cruises . I thought it was interesting (this is the main portion of the email, the rest is more of an advertisement.)
"For the last twelve months, I have been eagerly awaiting the day when I would be able to share the news of our return to service with you. And that day is finally here.
I am beyond thrilled to announce our long-anticipated return to cruising! Starting June 5th, our newly revolutionized Celebrity Millennium will homeport in the tropical paradise of St. Maarten and begin offering two seven-night cruise itineraries in the Caribbean.
I am forever grateful for a lot of things today. I am grateful for the loyalty and support you, our most loyal guests, have shown us over the past year. Your words of encouragement, concern for our crew and willingness to work through these challenging times with us means more than you will ever know. I am grateful for the leadership and collaboration of the St. Maarten Government for working with us to welcome our guests back to their beautiful island safely. And I am grateful for the entire team at Celebrity Cruises for working day and night to make this a reality. "
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: bettenan]
#250500
03/19/2021 11:57 AM
03/19/2021 11:57 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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Wow. Really??????? That is somewhat shocking to me. Are they going to fully open up SXM by then?? If it was April 1, I would say this was an April Fool's Day joke.
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: bettenan]
#250503
03/19/2021 12:09 PM
03/19/2021 12:09 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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I actually wasn't aware that the 'no sail' orders had been lifted.. And this is less than two months away?? Wow. Double wow.
It starts June 5, so I guess that means Saturday to Saturday. Unless they are going to do charter air for it, you timeshare folks are going to have big competition for your Saturday to Saturday air!!!
Last edited by Carol_Hill; 03/19/2021 12:23 PM.
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: boucharda]
#250505
03/19/2021 12:10 PM
03/19/2021 12:10 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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boucharda--Yes. Shocking. No large ship has EVER home ported in SXM in the past. The biggest has been around 600-700 pax. I just find this weird.. .....says a person who has lived through the weirdest, saddest year that one could ever imagine...
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: Carol_Hill]
#250507
03/19/2021 12:19 PM
03/19/2021 12:19 PM
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,105 Massachusetts
boucharda
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Hmmm...looks like things recently changed (March 16th) and the no cruise suspension ends on May31st for most Cruise guidelines link
Last edited by boucharda; 03/19/2021 12:20 PM.
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: bettenan]
#250508
03/19/2021 12:21 PM
03/19/2021 12:21 PM
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Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 358
eightzerobits
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Posts: 358
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The U.S. lifted the no sail order on Oct 30, but then implemented a framework for conditional sailing. But if they aren't going in to US ports then does the CDC have any jurisdictions? Anyway - https://cruiseradio.net/celebrity-cruises-to-sail-from-st-maarten/* vaccines required for adult guests and crew * negative tests required for under 18 years old "The first of the two itineraries being operated will call at Aruba, Barbados, and Curaçao, with the second itinerary visiting St. Lucia, Barbados, and Tortola."
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: eightzerobits]
#250510
03/19/2021 12:25 PM
03/19/2021 12:25 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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thanks for the link. Wow, big news for the island!! Good news for taxi drivers and others that depend on tourists!!!!!!!!!!
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: bettenan]
#250513
03/19/2021 12:46 PM
03/19/2021 12:46 PM
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Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 44
MXS
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Got the same email. Here is the link to the message if anyone wants to read the entire email: http://bit.ly/3c2cYttMore info is to come on March 25. All passengers and crew must be vaccinated. Looking forward to learning more.
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: BillandElaine]
#250517
03/19/2021 01:07 PM
03/19/2021 01:07 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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Of course, that story is incorrect about the timing of the PCR test, if a person is from the US.
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: Carol_Hill]
#250522
03/19/2021 01:36 PM
03/19/2021 01:36 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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According to this story passengers will NOT be limited to ship shore excursions. St. Maarten/St. Martin locals better get onboard to be vaccinated.
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: Dutchman]
#250535
03/19/2021 02:59 PM
03/19/2021 02:59 PM
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,105 Massachusetts
boucharda
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...or charter flights arranged by Celebrity ...otherwise not a good idea for low prices for the other SXM arrivals on a Saturday
Last edited by boucharda; 03/19/2021 03:00 PM.
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: Carol_Hill]
#250562
03/19/2021 06:41 PM
03/19/2021 06:41 PM
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Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 399
Uksimonusa
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Of course, that story is incorrect about the timing of the PCR test, if a person is from the US. I think the 72 hours is a Celebrity thing, not a St Maarten thing
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: bettenan]
#250563
03/19/2021 06:49 PM
03/19/2021 06:49 PM
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Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,677 Brookfield, CT.
pat
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Not a major cruise fan myself but happy for the various SXM industries that rely on cruise passengers for their livelihood, particularly the cab drivers usually based at the cruise port. I would imagine there will be a lot of pre and post sail offers coming down the pike, too. Anything to help the locals recover after what Irma and Covid dumped on them.
Respectfully,
pat
"Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them."
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: bettenan]
#250572
03/19/2021 07:39 PM
03/19/2021 07:39 PM
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 490 MILford,CT.
bonsie
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Isn't it interesting that Celebrity cruise lines is home porting in SXM for 3 months. Wasn't it Royal Caribbean cruise lines that wanted to build some some kind of adventure park by the cruise port....HMMMM.. guess who owns Celebrity cruise lines. Your right ROYAL Caribbean CRISE LINES. Anyway, if all goes well we will be on the second sailing out of SXM.
Last edited by bonsie; 03/19/2021 07:42 PM.
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: SammyM]
#250574
03/19/2021 07:49 PM
03/19/2021 07:49 PM
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 490 MILford,CT.
bonsie
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If all goes with the 3 months test period then it might be possible. BUT, you would probably have to do a tender at ST. Bart"s. Also, this may be the beginning of telling the CDC and the U.S, that we can sail out of other ports because your restrictions are to strict.
Last edited by bonsie; 03/19/2021 07:52 PM.
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: SammyM]
#250576
03/19/2021 07:59 PM
03/19/2021 07:59 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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Sammy--I posted a link above in this thread that said that they are NOT going to prohibit free lance excursions, that people will be able to venture out on their own.
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: boucharda]
#250598
03/20/2021 09:15 AM
03/20/2021 09:15 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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boucharda - If you would read any of the links that I posted, a) YES a negative PCR test is required before the person is allowed onboard and b) YES people are required to do a Covid test before re-entering the US, as that is a US requirement and could not be waived by a cruise line, even if they wanted to. So, in short, in addition to everyone having been vaccinated, they have to do all the protocols that are required of land visitors, except the insurance, which is kind of illogical in this circumstance anyway.
With regard to the SXM insurance, to me, it's only practicality is for the cost of quarantine. There would be no need to quarantine anyone on land in SXM because on arrival, they would be coming in and going directly to the ship anyway. The vaunted medical evac supposedly provided would NOT be sufficient to evac someone off the island, at $20,000 for the evac. And if the person was that sick, that they needed evac, they would never be able to arrive on the plane to SXM to begin with. At the end of the cruise, the person could be sick, yes, but I assume, without knowing, that SXM has an agreement in place that the cruise line would get the person off the island. Those that are fully vaccinated should not be getting deathly ill anyway, so hopefully that shouldn't be an issue.
It could be also that the cruise line will require everyone to purchase insurance from THEM to cover Covid. Frankly, I would put a LOT more confidence in insurance through the cruise line, versus through SXM.
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: kim]
#250599
03/20/2021 09:25 AM
03/20/2021 09:25 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 83,601 Central Florida!
Carol_Hill
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Kim--respectfully, this is a whole NOTHER ball game than the cruises that have left out of SXM before. The largest ships to ever home port in SXM were roughly one QUARTER the size of this ship, at around 500-600 pax. And the ones like Wind Star, which have been home porting in SXM for quite a while, average around 200 pax. My only concern in the whole deal is air, but they are pricing the cruises with air and thinking about it, they HAVE to be doing charter air, based on the numbers. The ship holds about 2,000, at full capacity. I doubt very much they will be running at full capacity, probably around 3/4, which would be 1500 people. It's likely that at least 10% of those will do their own air, so they could spend a few more days on either end of the cruise on land. That would leave 1350 people all trying to arrive on a Saturday at Juliana. Since your average 737 holds about 169 pax, fully loaded, you are talking approximately NINE 737's extra of people on a Saturday. So, my feeling is that there is no way those people are even going to go inside Juliana, or at least, not in the regular c & i lines. I figure they will be bussed directly from the plane to the cruise port. OR there will be some tents set up outside Juliana to process them in, and then they are bussed from there to the cruise port. The cruise lines have had nothing much else to plan for the past year, so I think that they will figure these things out, to make the most sense for their passengers. And putting them all through the regular lines at Juliana would make ZERO sense. Kind of exciting for ME personally is that we will get to see all this kind of up close and personal, from Beachside Villas, come June!!
Carol Hill
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Re: Celebrity Cruises and St Maarten
[Re: Carol_Hill]
#250613
03/20/2021 09:50 AM
03/20/2021 09:50 AM
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,105 Massachusetts
boucharda
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That was not what I asked. I read and am very aware of the requirements to get ON the ship and the requirements to re-enter the USA,,,,not the issue. I
If the cruise is only a three day cruise then getting of the ship at any port would not be an issue...but...I will go out on a limb here and assume the cruises will exceed the three day limit for testing....so on day four you get off in Aruba..no PCR test? On day five you get to Barbados...no PCR test? Day seven you return to SXM....no PCR test?
THAT was my question
Edit: this does not even consider the permission to enter form (EHAS or similar) that is needed for arrivals by air
Last edited by boucharda; 03/20/2021 09:56 AM.
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