CoronaVirus Impact on the Cruise Industry

[ldubs]

8 minutes ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

Or maybe we just have a different view of affluent.  By world standards most Americans are affluent.  And Americans who cruise come from the upper end of our population.  People throughout our country and the world are going to take economic hits from this thing.  Recompensing people for vacations should be like priority 27 on the top ten areas that need economic relief.

 

I guess it is all in the definition of "affluent".  In my book, just about anyone taking cruise ship vacations would be properly categorized as affluent.   Of course there are always outliers, but not too many.  As far as vacation recovery funding by our gov't, I agree that should have just about zero priority.        

[daveb714]

I know there are a lot of posts about Coronavirus but I thought I’d throw my question out there to get some opinions. I am scheduled to cruise from Vancouver to Japan in September 2020. Obviously nobody knows what the progression of the disease will be but I’m curious about everyones opinions are on whether they’d still plan on taking the cruise. If it came time to make final payment  and the disease was still an issue, what would you do?  My cruise is on Royal Caribbean and so far they haven’t canceled out that far but who knows what will happen. I know nobody has all the answers but I’m wondering what others think. 

[TYinPalmSprings]

1 hour ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

Or maybe we just have a different view of affluent.  By world standards most Americans are affluent.  And Americans who cruise come from the upper end of our population.  People throughout our country and the world are going to take economic hits from this thing.  Recompensing people for vacations should be like priority 27 on the top ten areas that need economic relief.

Yeah, like your knowledge of accounting, it's your own. Sorry that you also clump Americans as affluent.  But like everything else, you are entitled to your own opinions. 

[ed01106]

5 minutes ago, TYinPalmSprings said:

Yeah, like your knowledge of accounting, it's your own. Sorry that you also clump Americans as affluent.  But like everything else, you are entitled to your own opinions. 

Not all Americans are affluent.  But anyone who can afford a cruise is unquestionably wealthy by world standards.

[KnowTheScore]

I feel so sorry for all those hard working crew members now whose livelihoods depend on their cruise jobs.

 

As cruising inevitably grinds to a halt what will all those sterling men and women now do?   Will there be enough jobs elsewhere for such large quantities of people?

 

This could be devastating for those people.  :-(

[sfaaa]

2 hours ago, TYinPalmSprings said:

Yeah, like your knowledge of accounting, it's your own. Sorry that you also clump Americans as affluent.  But like everything else, you are entitled to your own opinions. 

Cheapsakes (like those removing DSC) I have seen. But I have never encountered a homeless person on a cruise ship, have you?

[JMorris271]

42 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

Cheapsakes (like those removing DSC) I have seen. But I have never encountered a homeless person on a cruise ship, have you?

They might be after they pay for their cruise.  Tons cruise that really can't afford to.  I worked  years without more than a week off with no pay. It's expectations that changed. Not income.

Edited March 12, 2020 by JMorris271

[Airbear232]

Hi Dave, we had one cruise booked for the end of June to Alaska.  It didn’t look promising that things would be resolved by then, so we’ve cancelled before the 90 days before cruise.  We’ve replaced it with two Med cruises in August and October.  If it doesn’t look it’ll be clear by August we’ll wait for October.  Hopefully, this all passes in the next two months, but we felt better safe than sorry.  Cheers, Aaron 

[Aplmac]

September is still quite aways from mid-March, where we are now.

 

I'd hang in there and sit tight.

This crisis should be boiling down by then, we hope.....

[Canuker]

Wait; do nothing now.

[drsel]

14 hours ago, KnowTheScore said:

I feel so sorry for all those hard working crew members now whose livelihoods depend on their cruise jobs.

 

As cruising inevitably grinds to a halt what will all those sterling men and women now do?   Will there be enough jobs elsewhere for such large quantities of people?

 

This could be devastating for those people.  😞

They will get paid minimum wages regardless.

[drsel]

But no tips or DSC for a few months.

[drsel]

Everything will settle down by Aug max

[sayanne]

Update re little boats - as of this morning AMA Waterways finally joined their kin in the business. All European river cruises cancelled until Apr 20, possible updates further on. Some weirdness in the terms I am reading for the last week before but it might just be a lack of coffee to understand. Thru 7 days before the trip it looks similar to Viking has done. Link here if interested - https://www.amawaterways.com/travel-updates

[drsel]

River cruises are much more expensive than Ocean cruises.

why do people prefer them at a much higher cost

[Jchivers]

3 minutes ago, drsel said:

River cruises are much more expensive than Ocean cruises.

why do people prefer them at a much higher cost

Because you can’t see the Rhine valley from the ocean. 

[sayanne]

Just now, drsel said:

River cruises are much more expensive than Ocean cruises.

why do people prefer them at a much higher cost

 

I intensely dislike crowd scenes, would rather spend the majority of my time on land learning about an area than in diversions on the ship and have zero interest in many of the amenities of a big ship like huge parties and unlimited drinks. Much prefer a quiet time sipping good wine or beer (unlimited wine and beer with meals, so plenty of opportunity to get drunk if that is the goal) and talking about the neat little places we visited during the day where we had a small group and got to learn a lot about a particular UNESCO sites, historic cathedral, local shopping district or sites of historic importance like Nuremberg.

 

Plus you have to look twice at the costs to get it right. On the river trips, all excursions are included as a matter of course, as I said beer and wine at meals and at receptions and a bunch of smaller things that I could find if I looked at them head to head. For what you actually get, some of the diff is simply that they are included in the river cruise and you have to pay extra for them on the big ship.

 

Basically, on the river trips you are choosing some amount of education over a focus on partying. 

[drsel]

Thanks dear.

[navybankerteacher]

15 minutes ago, drsel said:

River cruises are much more expensive than Ocean cruises.

why do people prefer them at a much higher cost

Because they are worth more - sort of the way Don Perignon will cost you a tad more than Pol Acker.

[navybankerteacher]

8 hours ago, drsel said:

They will get paid minimum wages regardless.

And who will pay them that minimum wage if they are out of work and sent home to Indonesia the Philippines or Eastern Europe?

[Lois R]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

River cruises are much more expensive than Ocean cruises.

why do people prefer them at a much higher cost

Because sailing right into town with only 140 other folks is such a wonderful, more intimate experience with

food that is not "banquet hall" is fabulous. Seeing places you can just get off the boat and walk to castles

is awesome. And having tours all included in your cruise with maybe 10 people? Makes things excellent

as well.

[Charles4515]

Royal Caribbean suspends...

 

https://presscenter.rclcorporate.com/press-release/82/royal-caribbean-announces-voluntary-suspension-of-cruising/

[sfaaa]

9 hours ago, drsel said:

Everything will settle down by Aug max

You think so? China is still not settle down and back to normal after 3 long months.

[Jchivers]

1 hour ago, Jchivers said:

Because you can’t see the Rhine valley from the ocean. 

This sounds a bit flippant, so let me expand.  For us, ocean cruising is perfectly fine -- food's great, crowds are great, parties are great.  Its all great.  We will continue to do ocean cruising as often as possible.

But for our next trip we wanted to see parts of the European interior.  We considered booking a land tour, but thought it'd be fun to try river cruising for the first time.  Alas, it's going to have to wait a while.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, sayanne said:

 

I intensely dislike crowd scenes, would rather spend the majority of my time on land learning about an area than in diversions on the ship and have zero interest in many of the amenities of a big ship like huge parties and unlimited drinks. Much prefer a quiet time sipping good wine or beer (unlimited wine and beer with meals, so plenty of opportunity to get drunk if that is the goal) and talking about the neat little places we visited during the day where we had a small group and got to learn a lot about a particular UNESCO sites, historic cathedral, local shopping district or sites of historic importance like Nuremberg.

 

Plus you have to look twice at the costs to get it right. On the river trips, all excursions are included as a matter of course, as I said beer and wine at meals and at receptions and a bunch of smaller things that I could find if I looked at them head to head. For what you actually get, some of the diff is simply that they are included in the river cruise and you have to pay extra for them on the big ship.

 

Basically, on the river trips you are choosing some amount of education over a focus on partying. 

 

I agree with your focus but there are some small, specialty cruise lines that also have a focus on itinerary, enrichment (onboard lecturers), and personalized service.  Not all of us sail on the big party ships just because we're upon the ocean.