Cruising During the Pandemic--pre flight

We had our land tour to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam cancelled twice and our small ship cruise of the English Channel & Celtic Sea Crossing: England, Normandy, Ireland, Derry & Belfast scheduled for July cancelled.  

So far, our Sicily and Malta trip and the Suez Canal Crossing: Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Red Sea are still going before the end of the year.

When I saw that Celebrity Cruises had begun their cruises to the Caribbean, Bill said to book it.  We've seen a lot in the Caribbean and this was only a 7 day cruise, but at least it was something.  The brochure said that all the crew were vaccinated and you had to be vaccinated to take the cruise.  

From the time I booked the cruise until we left on the 10th I had numerous emails on what was required to fly to Saint Maarten.  I knew we had to have a covid test 72 hours before.  That seemed really simple until I found out that the country required an electronic health form before you could get on the plane in the USA.  Now anyone that knows me knows I am calendar challenged.  Try figuring out when you need the test.

Our flight left on Friday at 11:15 pm and our appointment to check in at the cruise terminal was 2 pm Saturday.  Everyone had to have an appointment.  Now is when I started to get nervous.  We received an email about the health forms saying you had to have a copy of your negative covid test before you could fill out the forms.  Ok, we can do that.....but wait it will take up to 12 hours to get your health form returned.  You had to have hard copies of the forms before getting on the airplane.  We had planned to leave for the airport about 7 pm and get dinner at the airport.  

I called our local lab where we get our blood work done and they said results for a covid test could take as long as 72 hours.  I then contacted other agencies in town and no one would guarantee we'd have it back any sooner.  It wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't have to fill out the EHAS forms for Saint Maarten.  Bill and I decided to bite the bullet and go up to the airport on Thursday morning for our test.  We had the first two appointments at 8 and 8:15.  We waited about an hour for the hard copies of the test.  We then high tailed it back home and started working on the health forms.  There were some glitches in filling it out.  This is where Sherry, my sister, has always helped me with these, but they aren't in town.  It seems some of the dates are put in the USA way with the month, date and year and in some places the day, month and year were needed.  You had to include a scanned copy of your vaccine card and the test.  I filled mine out and then the form asked if there was another person to add.  I said "yes" and entered Bill's information.

It took about 15 minutes and I had a reply that said approved.  I noticed their were two pdf attachments.  I opened the first one and was so relieved that it turned out that simple.  

I added some last minute items to the luggage.  Later on in the day I decided that I better print the forms and make sure there were no problems with the printer.  I went in and printed mine and then opened up the second PDF attachment.  This can't be.....there were two for me and none for Bill.  Now what do we do?  There is a no reply email and no phone number to call.  I sat down and re-entered Bill's information and about an hour later his came back. 

Friday morning we went to Yoga class and did laundry and before you knew it, it was time to leave for the airport.

Our flight last month was out of terminal 4 but United was flying out of the newly remodeled terminal 3.  When we went to get something to eat, we were surprised that nothing was open.

Just as they started boarding everyone's cell phones started going off.  I had already stowed my phone in the carry on.  Once we were on the plane the captain announced that we'd be delayed due to a bad dust and electrical storm.  We ended up leaving almost and hour late.  Our snack for the 4 hour flight was a clear bag with an 8 ounce bottle of water and hard cookie.  Later they came by an gave us a can of Dr. Pepper.

When we arrived in Newark we had to run to the next concourse to catch our flight.  We were the last in line and then they called us out of line because they didn't see our covid test and the health forms.  They literally shut the plane door as we got on the plane.  Exact same "meal" and this was an international flight.

I wouldn't say a lot about the Saint Maarten airport.  There are no gates, you land on the tarmac and climb down the narrow staircase to the bus which takes you back to the 10 gate terminal.

As we got off the bus we had to show our covid test and passport.  We then walked down a hall and showed our passport and covid test and had to put our hand in a temperature machine.  Passport control also wanted to see our passports and tests.  Our luggage came out as we walked into the baggage claim.  Our Celebrity Rep was waiting for us and took us to the bus where three other people were waiting.  There were no crowds whatsoever.  The five of us arrived at the terminal about 20 minutes later.

As we got off the bus, we had to show our passport,  covid test and electronic health form (EHAS) and be temperature checked.  Now we entered that big tent where you usually see lots of passengers waiting to get on the ship.  It was only the five of us.  We went to one end, they went to another side.  They now have an app on your phone that has your passport and a photo that you take on it.  It checks you in.  We had to have someone give us our "Tracelet".  It a silicone watch like thing.  I had a pink dot on the back of mine to tell mine from Bill's blue dot.  We were instructed that we needed to wear it the entire week.  I started thinking this would be great if anyone went overboard.  One more time showing our passport and we went outdoors to a waiting golf cart.  At this point, we finally got to take our face mask off.  

As we walked up on the gang plank, there must have been 50 crew members cheering as we entered the ship.  They actually took our carry on and showed us to our cabin.

I'll let you know more tomorrow.

Turtle Safely.......