01/06/2022
Travel Friends, you may know that I just returned from a 10 day Southern Caribbean cruise. Covid- concerns increased during that time, but our ship was unaffected. I want to share a very detailed account of another traveler who was quarantined on another ship. This is an unemotional, account of what might happen if exposure is suspected. It shows, the ships are not trying to be unreasonable and will do what they can to make sure you and everyone is else is safe. Read as much as your interest requires...
I wanted to share my experience being isolated/quarantined recently on the Edge. I'm going to be as factual as possible, rather than the emotional responses I've seen from others. I recognize others' experiences may differ. I hope this information is helpful to those deciding whether or not to cruise. Note that any of this can change at any time, so your best bet is to call Celebrity. The definitions below are quarantine (you are cordoned off due to possible exposure) and isolation (you are cordoned off in a dedicated area due to positive covid test).
Celebrity is following a minimum standard of the CDC maritime guidelines. These are different than the land-based guidelines many people refer to. In some cases, Celebrity is more stringent than even the maritime guidelines.
It's possible to test negative and still have contracted Covid. This is what happened to me; we were on a back-to-back. The first cruise had about 1400 people; the second 1800. The day before the turnover, we tested negative. The next day - first day of the second cruise - I fell ill around midnight. The medical staff original said, "you just tested negative, it's probably a cold". Nope. From then, I remained in isolation for the entire second cruise.
If you have close contact with someone who tests positive you will be quarantined. I don't know an official definition of close contact, but we were told things like 5 feet and more than 15 minutes cumulative in 24 hours. They contact trace by interviewing the covid+ person and retracing their steps through the video. Facial recognition matches anyone seen in close contact to the guest folio. Anyone - regardless of booster status - is quarantined. Quarantine is for 24 hours, with a covid test at the beginning and end. If both are negative, you are free to go. You quarantine in your original stateroom.
If you test positive, you are given some time to pack up belongings and you are isolated in the red zone. This is a CDC requirement. The red zone is the fore portion of Deck 3. They are regular porthole cabins - the same that you would book if you booked a porthole room. They are the size of a regular balcony cabin, minus the balcony. They are not "in the bowels of the ship" or some kind of especially small or poorly appointed room. You will be isolated according to CDC guideline for 10 days (or the end of your cruise if it's shorter), pending Celebrity's ability to get you home (more on that in a moment).
During quarantine or isolation, you are not to leave your room. If you do, you risk being arrested by security - which is legal under maritime law. Your door is not locked (contrary to what others have said); in fact, it is open so you can leave out trash and they can deliver food or supplies in a contactless manner. There is no "armed security" as some have suggested; they video monitor and also have staff who calls the room. You are required to stay in; if you leave, you subject yourself to potentially being arrested.
For both quarantine or isolation, you have access to all restaurant menus (not just the limited room service), including alcohol. There is 24-hour service available, but they call proactively during regualr mealtimes.
For isolation (not sure about quarantine), they upgrade your internet and unlock all movies at no cost. The nurse staff was in contact with me two or three times daily. We had a coordinator for covid-specific protocols who called almost daily. The front desk called twice daily to see if there was anything we needed. As an example, they delivered a kettle to my room and a selection of coffees/teas so I could have hot-hot beverages and not have to go through room service. I believe smoking guests were given permission to smoke in their rooms if they needed to.
In short, they did everything reasonable to make our time in isolation as pleasant as it could be. My husband tested positive the day after I did. We elected to isolate in separate rooms, as we were both sick. We kept in touch via our phone messenger.
It was not without hiccups. Toward the end of the cruise, they had enough isolation and crew quarantines to overflow from deck 3 to another location. During these times, room service was often delayed.
Celebrity makes reasonable attempts to get you home during the cruise. In short, it's a liability on multiple fronts to have covid+ guests on the ship. They were pretty frank with us; given the number of cases and the holidays, there were simply no qualified charter flights from any of our remaining port stops to get us home.
Prior to landfall, our coordinator recommended we make land-based arrangements to finish out our isolation. We were given a generous allowance (currently $350/day) and an allowance for food ($100/day). We were responsible to rebook our flights, but Celebrity would cover any change costs (we had none). Celebrity handled arrangements to transfer us from the port to our Miami hotel in a private limo.
We will be reimbursed for these costs, and will receive a pro-rata refund (as future cruise credit) for the entire time we were impacted. This is written as part of your contract of carriage; I personally find it a generous and reassuring offer.
We honestly thought it wasn't that bad. It's not the vacation we wanted, but it's the vacation we got. Assuming you're not a terrible person, if you contract covid at home you'd isolate as well. Honestly, I had a water view, internet, and 24-hour room service. I felt I could've done worse. While I was quite ill, I was never in danger of being hospitalized. Nonetheless, I was reassured with the regular medical attention.
I can understand why others found it horrible; we attempted to make the best of it. Celebrity tried hard to make it as enjoyable as possible.
If you are slated to cruise, I would weigh the possibility of being quarantined and isolated: while not ideal, could you manage it? While they did not disclose the actual number of guests who contracted Covid (contrary to what others have mentioned), we had a little group chat going and my best guess is the high single-digit / low double-digit. The number of crew was high - between quarantine and isolation, there were almost no entertainment staff, spa staff, and things were getting stretched thin. What does this mean for chances? That's really up to your risk tolerance. Keep in mind, you're subject to the ship's rules while onboard and at sea - legally - so be prepared to comply.
Would we do it again? If we knew we'd test positive - probably not. But would we cruise again? Absolutely. I think the biggest takeaway we had is that with everyone traveling for the holidays, the amount of potential exposure, even by proxy, was such that risk was magnified. We would seek to book a less busy time.
We dubbed our experience "Quaranae" - Celebrity's most exclusive service tier. "Quaranae(tm) isn't a place. It isn't an amenity. It isn't a service. It's all of this and more."
EDIT: Thank you for all the well wishes! We are indeed feeling much better, though not yet 100%.
