Anyone else thinking twice before booking a cruise?

[Hammer61]

There have been some good offers around or about to expire and we had in mind to book a Septemeber Japan cruise or perhaps a trans Pacific from Alaska to Tokyo, but before we book our next cruise im holding off now until we see what happens with this Coronavirus, Cruise ships do seem to be in the spotlight and the Cruise company’s are not doing themselves any favours when either changing itinerys, some only offering credit for cruises cancelled rather than refunds, then there is all the hassle of maybe having to re arrange travel plans if itinerys change.

 

More importantly I hope we see a slowdown or stop in the spread of Coronavirus, and a vaccine and travel around the globe to get back to normal, but also wouldn’t surprise me if bookings around the globe are drying up, we may see some great incentives to book a cruise in the coming months.

 

And lets not forget the staff who work on the ships, having recently been on the Majestic Princess when this news broke, Staff on there were very nervous both about there job security and the ship is due to go to back to Asia very shortly.

 

 

[Chiliburn]

I’m trying to get on a spectrum of the seas to Sydney 

[Kiwi Kruzer]

27 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I’m trying to get on a spectrum of the seas to Sydney 

Good luck it will be a great cruise 🛳 🛳 🛳

[Aus Traveller]

We have several cruises booked and are not considering cancelling any. However, at the moment we wouldn't book one that went to Asian ports.

 

BTW, it was the luxury line Crystal that tried to get away with giving future credits instead of refunds, but they had to backtrack on that announcement to a certain extent. Whether they can get away with at all, remains to be seen.

 

Cruise lines have been force to change their itineraries when several countries have announced that they will not longer accept cruise ships visiting. What else could they do but change the itineraries?

Edited February 15, 2020 by Aus Traveller

[Hammer61]

26 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

 

Cruise lines have been force to change their itineraries when several countries have announced that they will not longer accept cruise ships visiting. What else could they do but change the itineraries?

And that’s fair enough, but mixed reports as to how much assistance people are getting re scheduling flights back home when it’s the port of disembarkation/embarkation! Sure it’s not the Cruise lines fault though. And a very difficult situation for them with thousands affected, but with this a real possibility on cruises right now, would you be happy to book one this year?

 

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by Hammer61

[peter1956]

Have three cruises in the next three months and looking forward to them all.

Will happily book another one soon. But not one that goes to Asia.

[icat2000]

We have one booked - Majestic in September. Pete not keen to go at the moment. More so that last cruise we were so sick with colds that we caught on the ship.  But I said its a long way off.

[kiwichick62]

We have a cruise booked on Sky Princess, April 25th in the Baltic’s.  Before that we have a 10 day land tour from Amsterdam to Zurich.  Glad we didn’t book flights with Cathay Pacific which transits through Hong Kong - we would be denied entry on both the land tour and the cruise.  Wow, the world has changed a lot since we first booked back in October 😟

[sewgood]

9 hours ago, icat2000 said:

We have one booked - Majestic in September. Pete not keen to go at the moment. More so that last cruise we were so sick with colds that we caught on the ship.  But I said its a long way off.

We have the one on the Majestic leaving HK on the 29th of August and are cruising with friends from Victoria so we don't really want to cancel.

We have decided not to book flights or a hotel as yet as the cruise may be canceled or start from a different port.

Fortunately we used a FCD to book so we are only out $100 each if we decide not to go ahead. Remaining balance is due on the 15th of June so hopefully more will become clearer by this date.

[MMDown Under]

Yes, now is not a good time to be booking a cruise and long haul flights.  2021maybe!

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, sewgood said:

We have the one on the Majestic leaving HK on the 29th of August and are cruising with friends from Victoria so we don't really want to cancel.

We have decided not to book flights or a hotel as yet as the cruise may be canceled or start from a different port.

Fortunately we used a FCD to book so we are only out $100 each if we decide not to go ahead. Remaining balance is due on the 15th of June so hopefully more will become clearer by this date.

If you cancel a Princess cruise that was booked using a FCD you get that FCD deposited back into your 'account' if the cancellation is beyond the date where you would normally lose the deposit. With cruises of 6 to 29 nights' duration, the date at which you lose the deposit is 181 days ahead. For you, that is around the end of February, but as you say, you are only risking $100 each.

[cme2c]

Booked in July out of Sydney on Carnival Splendor. Was Noumea, Lifou, Isle Of Pines but now, I don't know. Going Noumea-New Zealand (as has been happening recently) in winter is not a prospect I welcome! Perhaps a Vanuatu or Fiji port will be substituted, idk. By then, the cruise lines will either have their act together or be out of business so I suspect we will know more by the time the balance is due in May.

 

[cme2c]

Some people must be worrried. Got an offer in my inbox QM2 Freo-Syd next week from $55/night!

 

[sewgood]

3 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

If you cancel a Princess cruise that was booked using a FCD you get that FCD deposited back into your 'account' if the cancellation is beyond the date where you would normally lose the deposit. With cruises of 6 to 29 nights' duration, the date at which you lose the deposit is 181 days ahead. For you, that is around the end of February, but as you say, you are only risking $100 each.

Thanks for the information Aus Traveller. I think we would cancel if we were not meeting 3 other couples on the ship but it does make it more complicated when travelling with others. I think that there is a good chance of Princess cancelling or changing the departure city for this cruise if they thought the virus was going to be a problem. Hopefully though they would give us plenty of notice.

[lyndarra]

I have a cruise booked June 14 2020, Alaska on Westerdam. No thoughts on cancellation at this stage.

Not planning any more cruises this year as I'm running out of ports I've not been to. I cruise for the destinations, not the days at sea. Having said that there are many many ports I've not visited but it costs as much, if not more, flying there. Five days crossing the Atlantic last year was too many sea days.

[aussielozzie18]

I have an Alaska cruise booked for August with a DIY land tour.  No plans to cancel that one.    Have canx my Ovation cruise for Jan 2021 though.  No plans for any other cruises until things settle down.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

We have five cruises already booked.

 

The first is a 26 night Western Europe cruise on Crystal in late May, embarking in Civitavecchia. Fully paid plus flights and hotels already booked. We have some concerns on this cruise:

1. We're flying China Airlines via Taiwan and at the moment Italy is not allowing flights from Taiwan. Hopefully this will be sorted by then, otherwise we'll have to fly in somewhere else and get a train to Rome.

2. Crystal's current stance on only giving FCCs for cancelled cruises is very concerning.

 

Our next cruise is Singapore to Adelaide in late October. Fingers crossed this will be OK. We have flights booked using FF points.

 

The remaining cruises are next year so plenty of time to change our mind on those.

[ilikeanswers]

I don't have any cruises booked but I do have a DIY land trip to both Japan and Taiwan next month😆. We only have flights and accommodations booked, so if we did cancel it wouldn't be a huge loss. Since it is DIY we decided to go anyway. Neither country has a large infection number and if things really did get worst we can easily cut our trip short without losing too much. We got our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

[MMDown Under]

7 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

I don't have any cruises booked but I do have a DIY land trip to both Japan and Taiwan next month😆. We only have flights and accommodations booked, so if we did cancel it wouldn't be a huge loss. Since it is DIY we decided to go anyway. Neither country has a large infection number and if things really did get worst we can easily cut our trip short without losing too much. We got our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

There are advantages to DIY land travel.  I hope you have a great trip next month.  

[ilikeanswers]

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

There are advantages to DIY land travel.  I hope you have a great trip next month.  

 

Especially under the current circumstances. We were actually thinking about a cruise around Japan but after considering the destinations we wanted to visit we decided a cruise wouldn't work out. Looking at how things have turned out it seems it was a pretty lucky choice😜.

[MMDown Under]

25 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Especially under the current circumstances. We were actually thinking about a cruise around Japan but after considering the destinations we wanted to visit we decided a cruise wouldn't work out. Looking at how things have turned out it seems it was a pretty lucky choice😜.

It was a wise choice.  You can change your plans, as you see fit. 

We did a independent tour of Japan by train, which was a fabulous experience.  

Edited February 16, 2020 by MMDown Under

[The_Big_M]

On 2/16/2020 at 10:48 AM, cme2c said:

Some people must be worrried. Got an offer in my inbox QM2 Freo-Syd next week from $55/night!

 

 

That wasn't cancellations, just the cruise line rerouted the ship, so the new itinerary meant lots of vacancies.

[cme2c]

12 hours ago, The_Big_M said:

 

That wasn't cancellations, just the cruise line rerouted the ship, so the new itinerary meant lots of vacancies.

 

OK, but surely Cunard could have flown passengers from Singapore to Perth. I'm sure they had plenty to fly the other way.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Now that it has been announced that Sapphire Princess will be wintering over in Australia I'm going to be looking at the itineraries to see if I can squeeze in another cruise this year.😊

[NSWP]

I can only say that Princess will have trouble selling passages on ye olde Diamond Princess after this incident. Even though she well get a deep clean, we hope.