So where is Quantum of the Seas heading now??

[Bader]

Just tracking Quantum of the Seas on a cruise ship tracker.  The 15 Feb 2020 and 24 Feb 2020 cruises out of Singapore have been cancelled, yet the ship has just left port with a stated destination of Port Klang (would have been enroute to Bangkok before today's cruise was cancelled).  Not sure how accurate the destination information is though - I have noticed it can be wrong at times.

 

We are booked on the 4 April 2020 sailing out of Singapore and await news from Royal Caribbean.  I have been tracking the ship all week for some clues as to what may happen next.  I can understand why the ship has most likely had to vacate it's berth today in Singapore but is it just going to sit at anchor, sit in another port or more importantly, reposition???  The latter of course will have implications on our planned cruise which is why I am tracking her.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by Bader

[kernow]

Also interested, we should have boarded in Singapore today. I can't see it staying in Asia at the moment, everyone else seems to be moving their ships. They really don't seem to have got their act together like the other companies, it's terrible they won't tell those of you travelling in the next month or 2 what is going to happen.

[Bader]

UPDATE:

Well the ship does appear to be heading to Port Klang.  It's just turned north west to head up the Malaysian coast.  I have also found further destination information confirming a Port Klang ETA of 0330hrs on 17 Feb 2020.  That means a 34.5hr trip compared to what is normally 15hr on a normal cruise. 

 

A 'steady as she goes' trip to Port Klang it appears to be then.  I wonder if the ship is going to operate out of Port Klang for the next cruises and drop Singapore for the foreseeable future??

 

Has anyone received cruise update information for their 4 March sailing that would have been out of Singapore??  Just looking for clues for our 4 April sailing.

[Bader]

19 minutes ago, kernow said:

Also interested, we should have boarded in Singapore today. I can't see it staying in Asia at the moment, everyone else seems to be moving their ships. They really don't seem to have got their act together like the other companies, it's terrible they won't tell those of you travelling in the next month or 2 what is going to happen.

We have called them and they said they are working through the upcoming cruises and contacting guests.  We were told they had done all cruises up to the first week of March but it will be a week to ten days before they get to ours. 

 

It must be quite a logistical exercise contacting and engaging with all these guests so I suppose we have to wait our turn, but yes, it is a little frustrating as the cruise formed only part of our holiday so we have other connecting flights and hotels to sort out once we know what is happening with our cruise.

[Jimbo]

7 minutes ago, Bader said:

We have called them and they said they are working through the upcoming cruises and contacting guests.  We were told they had done all cruises up to the first week of March but it will be a week to ten days before they get to ours. 

 

It must be quite a logistical exercise contacting and engaging with all these guests so I suppose we have to wait our turn, but yes, it is a little frustrating as the cruise formed only part of our holiday so we have other connecting flights and hotels to sort out once we know what is happening with our cruise.

Sounds like a real mess.

[Maria63]

The discrepancy in what is cancelled and what is not seems to be down to the itinerary. The eastern roundtrip is problematic as it usually incudes Vietnam and they are denying cruise ships now. Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia (Borneo) is also saying "no!". The western route with Phuket, Penang, Port Klang (KL) and so on seems to be open to cruise ships at least for now. Looks like in Malaysia the decisions are made on a regional basis as some regions welcome cruises and some do not.

[Bader]

I wonder if they're heading to Port Klang to park-up off shore for the next 2 weeks or if this is actually in readiness to start cruising out of here and thus avoid Singapore.

 

We are currently booked on Quantum out of Singapore 4 Apr 2020 so watching events very closely.

 

 

[csnarpy]

5 hours ago, Bader said:

I wonder if they're heading to Port Klang to park-up off shore for the next 2 weeks or if this is actually in readiness to start cruising out of here and thus avoid Singapore.

 

We are currently booked on Quantum out of Singapore 4 Apr 2020 so watching events very closely.

 

 

I hate to say it and I know it's hard to do, since your 2 month out but I would be begin looking elsewhere. You don't know exactly what Royal will do, but most likely your going to get a refund if you don't like any other options they give you.

 

I don't nec mean book, but look for other destinations and then once Royal presents something, you can give them your alternative.

 

(this is what most of my clients are doing/have done)

 

 

[Bader]

1 minute ago, csnarpy said:

I hate to say it and I know it's hard to do, since your 2 month out but I would be begin looking elsewhere. You don't know exactly what Royal will do, but most likely your going to get a refund if you don't like any other options they give you.

 

I don't nec mean book, but look for other destinations and then once Royal presents something, you can give them your alternative.

 

(this is what most of my clients are doing/have done)

 

 

I think we have all but decided to avoid cruising for the remainder of the year.  All it needs is one infected passenger and you're trapped on board in lock down for 2 weeks.  That could happen ANYWHERE in the world.

[gingernm]

OH BOLLOX....

 

We have not heard anything as yet, we're on the 4th March out of Singapore!

 

Very concerned, as we have booked flights, hotel night before and hotel 4 nights after cruise all for Singapore and more importantly... all individually (no package).   Thankfully though we do have travel insurance. 

 

We will be gutted if we have to cancel everything, this is our honeymoon, get married on 29th Feb.

 

Rob & Sarah

[Maria63]

1 hour ago, gingernm said:

OH BOLLOX....

 

We have not heard anything as yet, we're on the 4th March out of Singapore!

 

Very concerned, as we have booked flights, hotel night before and hotel 4 nights after cruise all for Singapore and more importantly... all individually (no package).   Thankfully though we do have travel insurance. 

 

We will be gutted if we have to cancel everything, this is our honeymoon, get married on 29th Feb.

 

Rob & Sarah

Oh no... not nice, I agree!

 

But could you stick with your prior arrangements and make alternative plans for your honeymoon if the cruise doesn't happen? If Royal does the canceling you'll get your money back for the cruise + most likely some FCC. So if you hang in there you could still have a very nice honeymoon even though not on a cruise. We are currently in Singapore as Celebrity cancelled Millie on us, and going to Bintan island, a 1 hour ferry ride from here, tomorrow. They have some very, very good deals on hotels now over there, and many of the places look perfect for honeymooners. The hotels in Singapore also have super deals now, and for instance Shangri-la on Sentosa has a lovely & romantic setting complete with a nice beach.

[Bader]

I wouldn't be suprised if we are witnessing a covert repositioning of Quantum.  She is now more than halfway to Port Klang.  Other cruise lines are skipping Singapore and sailing straight past so I wonder if this is the RCI alternative to cancelling further cruises i.e. change departure port for the Mar/Apr cruises to sail north out of Port Klang stopping at Penang, Phuket, day at sea and then back to Port Klang.  I believe this change would trigger curtailment clauses in guests' travel insurance so they would no longer need to give refunds - just tell guests who do not wish to accept the revised sailing to claim on their travel insurance.  Singapore would avoided completely.  Just speculation but I do wonder.

[gingernm]

1 hour ago, Maria63 said:

Oh no... not nice, I agree!

 

But could you stick with your prior arrangements and make alternative plans for your honeymoon if the cruise doesn't happen? If Royal does the canceling you'll get your money back for the cruise + most likely some FCC. So if you hang in there you could still have a very nice honeymoon even though not on a cruise. We are currently in Singapore as Celebrity cancelled Millie on us, and going to Bintan island, a 1 hour ferry ride from here, tomorrow. They have some very, very good deals on hotels now over there, and many of the places look perfect for honeymooners. The hotels in Singapore also have super deals now, and for instance Shangri-la on Sentosa has a lovely & romantic setting complete with a nice beach.

Hi Maria,

 

Yeah we are formulating contingency... more than likely Sentosa.  

 

We'll have a look at Bintan, somewhere I've never actually heard of.

 

Neither of us have been anywhere in Asia, so this with the cruise was going to be superb. 

 

Still there's plenty of time in our lives to do the travelling, what's more important is the containment of this virus.  Wishing Asia and all affected countries all the best of luck.

 

Rob & Sarah.

[ssb]

Yellow greenish Ship in middle of photo is Quantum 

[twangster]

Interesting.  The Royal app has Quantum in Singapore on March 8 - 13 then Los Angeles on Mar 9 - 13 with Catalina Island listed as the next port.

 

March 8 - 12 Singapore  

March 9 - 13 Los Angeles next port Catalina

March 13 - 18 Singapore

March 16 - 20 Los Angeles next port Catalina

March 18 - 22 Singapore

March 20 - 23 Los Angeles next port Ensenada 

March 22 - 27 Singapore

March 23 - 27  Los Angeles next port Catalina

March 27 - 30 Singapore

March 30 - Apr 3  Los Angeles next port Catalina

Mar 31 - Apr 3 Singapore

Apr 3 - 6 Los Angeles next port Ensenada 

 

 

 

[mugtech]

Which brings up the classic  "How can you be in two places at once when you're really no where at all?"

[twangster]

4 minutes ago, mugtech said:

Which brings up the classic  "How can you be in two places at once when you're really no where at all?"

 

The Singapore listing are the original or previously planned cruises.

 

Perhaps they are loading new cruises in but haven't deleted the old ones yet.

[mugtech]

1 minute ago, twangster said:

 

The Singapore listing are the original or previously planned cruises.

 

Perhaps they are loading new cruises in but haven't deleted the old ones yet.

What I figured, but I just couldn't pass up a chance to quote Firesign Theatre.

[kernow]

3 hours ago, gingernm said:

Hi Maria,

 

Yeah we are formulating contingency... more than likely Sentosa.  

 

We'll have a look at Bintan, somewhere I've never actually heard of.

 

Neither of us have been anywhere in Asia, so this with the cruise was going to be superb. 

 

Still there's plenty of time in our lives to do the travelling, what's more important is the containment of this virus.  Wishing Asia and all affected countries all the best of luck.

 

Rob & Sarah.

Really hope it doesn't ruin your honeymoon. I would second Shangri_la  Sentosa, we stayed there a few years ago and loved it.

[kernow]

5 hours ago, Maria63 said:

Oh no... not nice, I agree!

 

But could you stick with your prior arrangements and make alternative plans for your honeymoon if the cruise doesn't happen? If Royal does the canceling you'll get your money back for the cruise + most likely some FCC. So if you hang in there you could still have a very nice honeymoon even though not on a cruise. We are currently in Singapore as Celebrity cancelled Millie on us, and going to Bintan island, a 1 hour ferry ride from here, tomorrow. They have some very, very good deals on hotels now over there, and many of the places look perfect for honeymooners. The hotels in Singapore also have super deals now, and for instance Shangri-la on Sentosa has a lovely & romantic setting complete with a nice beach.

Sadly RCL are not offering any compensation for the cancelled Quantum cruises, even those who were already in Singapore on Tuesday are only getting the original cruise cost back. Lots of people on the other site very angry about it.

[ONECRUISER]

24 minutes ago, kernow said:

Sadly RCL are not offering any compensation for the cancelled Quantum cruises, even those who were already in Singapore on Tuesday are only getting the original cruise cost back. Lots of people on the other site very angry about it.

Wasn't aware. Sounds like treating Virus situation like they do Hurricanes and such, an "Act of God". Nothing extra required. 

[twangster]

38 minutes ago, kernow said:

Sadly RCL are not offering any compensation for the cancelled Quantum cruises, even those who were already in Singapore on Tuesday are only getting the original cruise cost back. Lots of people on the other site very angry about it.

 

That's somewhat typical of cruise lines.  They seem to limit their responsibility to the cruise itself based on guests being local to the home port unless a package is booked including airfare from the cruise line.  When guests make their own travel arrangements guests assume responsibility for travel to or from the cruise port or so it seems.   At that point you are no different from someone living in the home port city.  

 

I was impacted by this myself when the crane fell on Oasis.  I had booked a round trip ticket that I used for the Symphony TA on the outbound and I was going to use the return ticket to come home after the Oasis TA.  Because I had used the outbound air ticket already I couldn't get any credit or use the second part of the air ticket for anything else.  I lost over $800 of ticket value on the return portion that I couldn't change to anything but a flight from Barcelona to the U.S.  There were no other TAs I could jump on to use the return air ticket by the date the airline established.

 

That's where travel insurance comes into play.  

[VK3DQ]

Hi Folks

 

Send her down to Australia and let her do a winter season of cruises to the pacific islands  ..great weather at this time of the year and a market waiting for a quality ship

 

Regards

 

John

 

PS a safe part of the world 

[BecAus]

Following - thank you for the information you've found out so far.  

We are on the 5n sailing on 17 April so just keeping an eye on things at the moment.

My travel insurance seems to have a epidemic / pandemic clause so not sure if we would be covered for anything related to this.

We have non-refundable hotels booked before and after unfortunately.  Depending on travel advisories for Singapore we would probably still go and just stay there - we are regulars to Singapore (like ~ 30 times or so) and this is a special trip for my friends 50th so as long as it's considered safe enough we will still go.

 

I find it a bit odd that they would sail out of KL instead of Singapore but maybe KL would be a bit less restrictive with their entry conditions than Singapore perhaps?

 

We have a TP booked in Sept / Oct from Hawaii - Sydney on Ovation but I don't have any concerns about that one - unless the situation changes drastically of course : )

 

gingernm - very sorry to hear about the possible disruption to your honeymoon plans : (

It's very close to 4th March to have such uncertainty for you.

Hope it all works out ok and you get some idea of certainty of what will happen sooner rather than later.

Wishing you a wonderful Wedding day on the 29th!

 

 

[twangster]

2 minutes ago, VK3DQ said:

Send her down to Australia and let her do a winter season of cruises to the pacific islands 

 

It seems like there is a cross section of the cruise market there that doesn't like Quantum class.  They might be better suited to having something smaller year round to test demand and satisfy the Quantum class deniers.