Cruise company policy based on current world situation

[stagehandron]

What with all the craziness going on in the world how are the cruise companies dealing with different countries,ports of call etc.?

[paul929207]

Pretty broad question there.

 

Cruise line monitor conditions in the areas they sail. As needed, they adjust their itineraries. For instance, our cruise this past October was scheduled to call on Odessa, Ukraine. With the problems there, the stop was cancelled.

[Scrapnana]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

The vast majority of ports are safe (as much as anything is safe). When problems arise, ports are cancelled (for example most cruise lines cancelled Egyptian ports due to political unrest and western African ports were cancelled due to Ebola). Sometimes other ports are substituted, sometimes you get extra sea days.

[cb at sea]

Cruises will go where folks pay to go...I would NOT go to the mideast anytime soon...or N. Africa...or anyplace that hates us....

Edited January 2, 2015 by cb at sea

[sail7seas]

If State Department puts out a 'do not travel' to order, cruise lines listen.

They will not risk their crews, guests and safety of their vessels. Safety first.......

If they cancel a port, they may or may not substitute another. No notice need be given to guests for them to cancel. It's in the cruise contracts.

 

[John Bull]

If State Department puts out a 'do not travel' to order, cruise lines listen.

They will not risk their crews, guests and safety of their vessels. Safety first.......

If they cancel a port, they may or may not substitute another. No notice need be given to guests for them to cancel. It's in the cruise contracts.

 

 

Agreed - though cruise lines do tend to take a more cautious approach than the State Dept, and itineraries are often revised very early when the potential for problems is pretty low.

 

Happens more with US lines than others, I suspect because American cruisers are more risk-averse than other nationalities - even if the State Department considers places to be safe, it makes no business sense to advertise cruises to those places if bookings are going to be affected by media reports.

US ships abandoned places like Egypt & Tunisia early on, UK & Italian ships continued problem-free with those itineraries for many months after - locals were very grateful - though eventually they stopped too.

We had an RCI Holy Land cruise re-scheduled months ahead to include Athens instead of Cairo - we actually booked after the switch.

By the time the cruise took place, Cairo was safe & peaceful and our Athens day was affected by a general strike & demonstration. :rolleyes:

 

Cruise lines also have to figure out the alternatives. Crimea was a recent classic example - some cruise lines changed Black Sea itineraries when political unrest first started. Months later, when travel warnings were issued, those ships had alternates already in place whereas those which had persisted with Crimea had limited options - alternate ports were already booked-out.

On the other hand, because of the Crimea/Ukraine situation there was also concern about St Petersburg & bookings for the Baltic suffered.

Unnecessarily, as it turned out.:rolleyes:

 

All of which shows that predicting the future is an impossible task.

But cruise lines are well-used to adapting to political situations as well as weather, natural disasters & such.

 

And one advantage of cruising rather than vacation hotels - ships can re-schedule ports, whereas hotels are notoriously difficult to move. ;)

 

JB :)

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

Agreed - though cruise lines do tend to take a more cautious approach than the State Dept, and itineraries are often revised very early when the potential for problems is pretty low.

 

Happens more with US lines than others, I suspect because American cruisers are more risk-averse than other nationalities - even if the State Department considers places to be safe, it makes no business sense to advertise cruises to those places if bookings are going to be affected by media reports.

US ships abandoned places like Egypt & Tunisia early on, UK & Italian ships continued problem-free with those itineraries for many months after - locals were very grateful - though eventually they stopped too.

We had an RCI Holy Land cruise re-scheduled months ahead to include Athens instead of Cairo - we actually booked after the switch.

By the time the cruise took place, Cairo was safe & peaceful and our Athens day was affected by a general strike & demonstration. :rolleyes:

 

Cruise lines also have to figure out the alternatives. Crimea was a recent classic example - some cruise lines changed Black Sea itineraries when political unrest first started. Months later, when travel warnings were issued, those ships had alternates already in place whereas those which had persisted with Crimea had limited options - alternate ports were already booked-out.

On the other hand, because of the Crimea/Ukraine situation there was also concern about St Petersburg & bookings for the Baltic suffered.

Unnecessarily, as it turned out.:rolleyes:

 

All of which shows that predicting the future is an impossible task.

But cruise lines are well-used to adapting to political situations as well as weather, natural disasters & such.

 

And one advantage of cruising rather than vacation hotels - ships can re-schedule ports, whereas hotels are notoriously difficult to move. ;)

 

JB :)

 

 

Well done :)

[cruisemom42]

Agreed - though cruise lines do tend to take a more cautious approach than the State Dept, and itineraries are often revised very early when the potential for problems is pretty low.

 

Happens more with US lines than others, I suspect because American cruisers are more risk-averse than other nationalities - even if the State Department considers places to be safe, it makes no business sense to advertise cruises to those places if bookings are going to be affected by media reports.

US ships abandoned places like Egypt & Tunisia early on, UK & Italian ships continued problem-free with those itineraries for many months after - locals were very grateful - though eventually they stopped too.

We had an RCI Holy Land cruise re-scheduled months ahead to include Athens instead of Cairo - we actually booked after the switch.

By the time the cruise took place, Cairo was safe & peaceful and our Athens day was affected by a general strike & demonstration. :rolleyes:

 

 

JB :)

 

Yes, I like cruising with UK lines -- they are less likely to cancel ports absent a real reason to do so. :D I also have booked several tours with UK firms and the same seems to hold true with them.

 

Part of the fault may be a general American lack of specificity when it comes to geography. (As borne out by all the crazy fears voiced during the Ebola scare last fall....)

 

A couple of years ago my parents were booked on a HAL cruise scheduled to visit Tunisia. As luck would have it, I was on a cruise at the exact same time (Voyages to Antiquity) also scheduled to call into the same two Tunisian ports.

 

HAL cancelled the ports at the last minute (no convincing explanation other than general unease); VTA made both port stops there.

[sail7seas]

If there is a pattern of HAL cancelling more quickly than other cruise lines, why take the chance booking with them? If you know it is likely another cruise line will be more willing to bring ship/crew/guests to 'questionably' (?) safe ports, why risk missing a port you would consider safe 'enough'?

[cruisemom42]

If there is a pattern of HAL cancelling more quickly than other cruise lines, why take the chance booking with them? If you know it is likely another cruise line will be more willing to bring ship/crew/guests to 'questionably' (?) safe ports, why risk missing a port you would consider safe 'enough'?

 

If you are directing this to me, I'm not sure I fully understand what you are asking...I generally don't book a cruise on HAL or a similar line if there are ports on the itinerary that tend to be cancelled on a somewhat regular basis (at the time; things change of course). You'll notice it was my parents on that HAL cruise -- not me. :D But I'm happy enough to take a Western Med cruise on a HAL ship stopping in Italy, France and Spain.

 

To answer in a different way, I don't think HAL cancels more quickly than any other mass market line that largely markets to the American market. But in my experience, those lines as a whole do tend to cancel ports more quickly -- and I suspect it has to do with their American passengers cancelling cruises more quickly when there is any suggestion of unrest or uncertainty. So in a sense they are responding to their market, which is what they need to do to run a viable business.

 

You seem to be hinting that other lines make stops at 'questionably' safe ports. What criteria would you use to determine safety? It's a good question. If there is no current travel warning issued by the US government, is it safe? That was the case with the Tunisia stops I mentioned above. And yet in other areas there are longstanding travel warnings (Mexico, Israel), yet ships continue to stop there.

 

I have been quite impressed with the level of awareness and granularity that I've experienced in dealing with several specialized UK-based travel companies. They are aware of risks and seem to have access to very up-to-minute information on situations in any given country. And they are also very good at localizing the risk. For example, if there is trouble in Tunisia at the southern end of the country near the Sahara between a couple of small feuding groups, they will not cancel port stops at the northern end of the country on the Mediterranean.

[jocap]

Perhaps it's just familiarity with an area...I wouldn't hesitate to take a holiday in Sharm el Sheikh or Hurghada on Egypt's Red Sea coast, along with many thousands of others, at this time of year; friends have had a fabulous time on the Nile and spent a few days in Cairo, on a package tour; I'm inundated with travel brochures about Tunisia and Turkey, where millions of Europeans go for some winter sun., and I never even thought about problems when my cruise ship stopped in Casablanca, N. Africa, in November....

But I might be nervous of taking a holiday in Mexico right now, as it's a strange place to me, and I only seem to hear bad news on the TV. Millions of Americans know differently, because they are more familiar with these spots.

[sail7seas]

Good point.

 

Comfort and familiarity go a long way in ones feeling of safety.

[therhodes]

I recently spent over a month in the Middle East, 16 days of which was on a Voyages of Discovery cruise.

 

We visited Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Djibouti, Oman and the UAE. On land or at sea there was never any point that we didn't feel safe and more than welcomed by everyone we came in contact with.

 

There were some sketchie and aggressive vendors in Egypt, but that was the worst that we ran into. Having a good guide in Israel was important just simply because they were on top of any volatile situations that can arises very quickly and reroute as necessary. And of course the "pirate security measures" in the Gulf of Aden, which is a standard precaution for any ship in that area. Cruisehips are not a hot commodity apparently, but continue to take the safety issues seriously, just in case.

 

There had been a lot of terrible things in the news before we left and at one point did consider cancelling the whole thing but on doing a bit more research and getting in touch with people in these areas, I was reassured that tourists safety is first and formost as it is one of the main sources on income for some of these countries.

 

I'm so glad we didn't cancel. It was a fantastic trip. Jordan and Oman were my favorite places and would encourage anyone, with the opportunity to go, to not miss theses countries.

 

Linda.

[Cruisin' Chick]

When was the last time that there wasn't situations happening in this world?

[falldownalot]

Cruises will go where folks pay to go...I would NOT go to the mideast anytime soon...or N. Africa...or anyplace that hates us....

 

If you limit yourselfonly to places that like you you will miss some fascinating and beautiful destinations.

[April7901]

If you limit yourselfonly to places that like you you will miss some fascinating and beautiful destinations.

 

 

.. and probably not be able to travel internationally at all - even on our own continent. The US isn't exactly winning any popularity contests lately ;)