Frequently Asked Questions

Hand Washing

Guests are strongly encouraged to wash their hands with soap and hot water after using the restroom and before eating or handling food. Medical experts say this is one of the best ways to prevent illnesses from starting or spreading.

Illnesses and Isolation of Guests

Celebrity Cruises® follows practices and maintains policies that seek to prevent illnesses from affecting our guests. One of the best ways to prevent the spread of contagious illnesses like gastrointestinal viruses, colds and flu is to wash your hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds with soap and hot water after using the restroom and again before eating anything. In the event you experience symptoms that indicate a gastrointestinal illness, such as diarrhea or vomiting, or know of someone experiencing these symptoms, you must advise the medical staff immediately. In addition, some gastrointestinal illnesses remain contagious up to 72 hours or more after symptoms subside; therefore, if you or someone you know experienced such an illness just prior to your cruise, you must immediately notify the ship's medical staff. This will permit the crew to take steps to reduce the chance that your illness will spread to others on the ship. Failure to immediately report a contagious illness to the ship’s medical staff, or to accurately describe its onset, greatly increases the likelihood the illness will spread to others and is a violation of this Guest Conduct Policy. In the event of a contagious illness, the ship's crew will take steps to curtail its spread to other guests, including if necessary, steps set forth in the Consequences Section below.

Fitness to Travel Safely

Guests with disabilities are not required to travel with another person as a condition to traveling on our ships. However, all guests must consider that crew members are not required to assist guests with personal tasks or personal hygiene needs (e.g. assisting with eating, dressing, toileting). Therefore, guests requiring assistance with these functions should consider these needs when planning a cruise vacation.

If there is a question as to a prospective guest's ability to independently provide for their personal needs or hygiene without being a danger to themselves or others, and the guest plans to travel alone, this situation must be discussed with the company's Access Department prior to booking a cruise vacation. The Access Department can be reached at Special_Needs@Celebrity.com or by calling 1.866.592.7225. This will allow an individualized assessment of the guest's fitness to travel for the duration of the cruise without personal assistance. Unaccompanied guests attempting to board or found onboard without the ability to independently care for their personal needs will be evaluated to determine if they are fit to safely travel without assistance. Guests who are found unfit to travel may be denied boarding or removed from the ship at the next port-of-call.

Medication

Guests must ensure that they bring an adequate supply of any medication they require for the entire duration of the cruise. The ship's medical centers may not have a supply of any needed medication and not all medication will be available in the ports-of-call. Guests must not pack medication in checked luggage to ensure you always have immediate access if needed.

In compliance with strict standards set by U.S. Public Health Services (USPHS) and the Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP), our ships have always been maintained using the most rigorous cleaning regimens. All ships are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized prior to every voyage, and consistently and frequently throughout your sailing, with disinfecting cleaning agents and techniques that have been certified by health authorities as effective against SARS-Cov-2/COVD-19/Coronavirus and other pathogens. All chemicals are EPA-certified, alcohol-based, scentless, and safe for the general population. High-traffic and frequently touched areas like elevators, escalators, stairways, and promenades are cleaned every two hours and gangway rails every 20 to 30 minutes during busy times. Staterooms are cleaned daily and only while guests are out of the room, with particular attention paid to frequently used items and surfaces. All stateroom and housekeeping attendants will be continuously trained on the latest sanitization guidelines. We'll ensure cleaning standards are upheld through frequent stateroom inspections using black light technology to show surface wiping efficacy. Crew will have mandatory, ongoing training classes and refreshers that are documented to ensure all the latest protocols are being followed, in compliance with various international regulations, including the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Hand hygiene on board has always been a priority for us, as a proven way of helping protect the health and safety of our guests and crew, with numerous hand washing sink stations and hand sanitizer stations located throughout the ship. Now we have increased and enhanced those efforts by increasing the number of Purell® sanitizer stations around the ship by 75% and introducing Purell sanitizer wipe stations in high-touch areas.

On Celebrity Cruises ships, 100% fresh ocean air is continuously supplied from outside. Intake of air occurs on one side of the ship for cooling and ventilation, then the air is removed via exhaust on the opposite side of the ship. This continual intake of fresh air replaces the air in any space, with a total air change up to 12 times an hour in staterooms, and about 15 changes an hour in large public spaces. Fan coil units in your stateroom and public spaces provide an extra layer of protection, continuously scrubbing the air of pathogens, using a high-grade MERV 13 filter that captures aerosols 0.3 to 1 micron in size with ~90% efficacy— fine enough to filter aerosolized viruses. An independent study by the University of Nebraska Medical Center confirmed that cross-contamination of air between adjacent spaces is virtually impossible thanks to this powerful system.

The temperature of washers and dryers onboard follows the guidance of the U.S. CDC to ensure all laundered goods, including towels, bed linens, and cloth napkins, are fully sanitized.

We recommend each guest bring their personal preference of protective equipment, but if you do happen to forget or misplace your mask or other items, you may ask the Guest Relations desk or visit the sundry station onboard.

While onboard and in the cruise terminal throughout boarding, screening and disembarkation, masks are optional unless otherwise required by local ordinance.

We continuously monitor global health ordinances and may adjust this advisement to ensure the health and safety of our guests and crew. Guests will be notified pre-cruise or onboard, should we make changes to this policy.

The health and safety of our guests and crew is our top priority. All crew members are provided with the tools and the training to follow all new protocols — including how to properly don personal protective equipment like face masks and gloves in roles in circumstances where they may be deemed necessary. Advisement to wear masks is subject to global and local health advisement.

If any of our guests or crew members ever feel unwell during their sailing, they can be immediately evaluated by medical staff, with an in-stateroom visit or by video tele-consultation. A multitude of evaluative tests can be conducted right onboard in our medical lab. This is just one capability of our enhanced Medical Center.

In the interest of public health onboard, isolation and/or quarantine may be required to prevent exposure to people who have or may have any kind of infectious disease. A guest that is diagnosed as having an infectious disease by a member of our medical staff onboard will need to isolate onboard for a period of time — either until they can be safely disembarked at a port of call with private transport home, or when the sailing concludes back at the home port where it started. Those guests who meet the threshold to be deemed a close contact will need to meet necessary quarantine and/or testing requirements based on their vaccination status.

Guests who must isolate due to an infectious disease diagnosis will remain in their stateroom or be moved to a stateroom near the medical center where medical staff and Guest Services will check on them regularly, depending on availability. Complimentary amenities including room service and WiFi will be provided.

Guests treated on board may request copies of their medical records by filling out the Online Request Form.

In the event any of our guests or crew tests positive for COVID-19 onboard, we have a robust, tiered response plan in place that we've developed with guidance from local authorities and leading public health experts. The tiers increase protocols and vigilance onboard while providing transparent updates to guests the whole way. In partnership with local authorities, Celebrity Cruises has developed transport protocols to ensure the ship can return to port safely.