Costa Cruises plan to restart

[Cathygh]

Morning All

Just found this

http://crew-center.com/costa-cruises-plans-re-start-voyages-7-ships-5-phases?fbclid=IwAR1dD5QBe-Tm--ANx5-N_UPTfKRYAnJWhycO5BKPqGLFTRPCz-UzB9K-MkU

It gives a good idea as to how P&O could restart - phase in ships, 7 days cruises, Brits only to begin with.

Regards

Cathy

 

[Britboys]

Very interesting thanks for that. Now we just all have to hope that the UK gets a proper hold on Covid-19 and that the potential second wave doesn't materialise.

[P&O SUE]

I’m very keen to get on a ship again but I’ll definitely wait and watch what happens in the first couple of months!
 

My next one now isn’t until September 2021 so I’m keeping everything crossed that things may be nearly normal by then. Otherwise it will be a Brittany ferry for me across to France or Spain.

[Britboys]

29 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

I’m very keen to get on a ship again but I’ll definitely wait and watch what happens in the first couple of months!
 

My next one now isn’t until September 2021 so I’m keeping everything crossed that things may be nearly normal by then. Otherwise it will be a Brittany ferry for me across to France or Spain.

Just make sure that the ferries have the right sort of air-con!

[P&O SUE]

2 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Just make sure that the ferries have the right sort of air-con!

Good point! Perhaps Eurotunnel then when we stay in our car!

[molecrochip]

This is not based on any firm info. However, based on the Costa plan, I think the P&O plan will be very similar

 

October

Ventura- new cruises - 3 then 4 nights no ports.

Azura & Britannia transatlantic - maybe empty or low occupancy

 

November

Azura & Britannia  - Caribbean - low to middle occupancy

Ventura - around UK - new cruises - low to middle occupancy.

Ventura - maybe foreign English Channel ports-  middle occupancy. 

 

December

Azura, Britannia, - Caribbean cruises as close to planned.

Ventura & Iona - cruises as close as planned.

 

Probably all sailing with British resident passengers only. Expect to see limited selection of ports. Mainland Spain ports are clearly not enthusiastic about reopening with the exception of Barcelona where Carnival have their own terminal hence sway.

[Son of Anarchy]

6 minutes ago, molecrochip said:

This is not based on any firm info. However, based on the Costa plan, I think the P&O plan will be very similar

 

October

Ventura- new cruises - 3 then 4 nights no ports.

Azura & Britannia transatlantic - maybe empty or low occupancy

 

November

Azura & Britannia  - Caribbean - low to middle occupancy

Ventura - around UK - new cruises - low to middle occupancy.

Ventura - maybe foreign English Channel ports-  middle occupancy. 

 

December

Azura, Britannia, - Caribbean cruises as close to planned.

Ventura & Iona - cruises as close as planned.

 

Probably all sailing with British resident passengers only. Expect to see limited selection of ports. Mainland Spain ports are clearly not enthusiastic about reopening with the exception of Barcelona where Carnival have their own terminal hence sway.

Wow, very detailed, thank you.

 

Well, we'll just have a look at the website over the continuing days.  Don't mind going round the Isle of Wight for a few days, even though I have done that a few times before on yachts!  Will certainly be less work and more comfortable.  And around Britain sounds ok although the time of year not great, see what the prices are.

 

And the indication that Azura's Caribbean season looks likely gives us some hope for our Plan B/C etc in the ever increasing likelihood that Arcadia won't be going on her Worldie.

 

Thank you again, and if we're on Iona with in December, I'll get you a drink in the Crow Bar!

 

 

[Cathygh]

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

This is not based on any firm info. However, based on the Costa plan, I think the P&O plan will be very similar

 

October

Ventura- new cruises - 3 then 4 nights no ports.

Azura & Britannia transatlantic - maybe empty or low occupancy

 

November

Azura & Britannia  - Caribbean - low to middle occupancy

Ventura - around UK - new cruises - low to middle occupancy.

Ventura - maybe foreign English Channel ports-  middle occupancy. 

 

Interesting. I am booked on Britannia's TA. I only just used my FCC on it last week and it seemed fairly full, only 2 cabins left on the grade I asked for.  They  can bump me off at the right price!

Cathy

1 hour ago, molecrochip said:

 

December

Azura, Britannia, - Caribbean cruises as close to planned.

Ventura & Iona - cruises as close as planned.

 

Probably all sailing with British resident passengers only. Expect to see limited selection of ports. Mainland Spain ports are clearly not enthusiastic about reopening with the exception of Barcelona where Carnival have their own terminal hence sway.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Cathygh
to add info

[ann141]

4 hours ago, molecrochip said:

This is not based on any firm info. However, based on the Costa plan, I think the P&O plan will be very similar

 

October

Ventura- new cruises - 3 then 4 nights no ports.

Azura & Britannia transatlantic - maybe empty or low occupancy

 

November

Azura & Britannia  - Caribbean - low to middle occupancy

Ventura - around UK - new cruises - low to middle occupancy.

Ventura - maybe foreign English Channel ports-  middle occupancy. 

 

December

Azura, Britannia, - Caribbean cruises as close to planned.

Ventura & Iona - cruises as close as planned.

 

Probably all sailing with British resident passengers only. Expect to see limited selection of ports. Mainland Spain ports are clearly not enthusiastic about reopening with the exception of Barcelona where Carnival have their own terminal hence sway.

How about Arcadia and Aurora?

[Esprit]

I hope there will be as much interest in cruises around the UK as AIDA cruises has had since they announced theirs for this August. 

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, molecrochip said:

This is not based on any firm info. However, based on the Costa plan, I think the P&O plan will be very similar

 

October

Ventura- new cruises - 3 then 4 nights no ports.

Azura & Britannia transatlantic - maybe empty or low occupancy

 

November

Azura & Britannia  - Caribbean - low to middle occupancy

Ventura - around UK - new cruises - low to middle occupancy.

Ventura - maybe foreign English Channel ports-  middle occupancy. 

 

December

Azura, Britannia, - Caribbean cruises as close to planned.

Ventura & Iona - cruises as close as planned.

 

Probably all sailing with British resident passengers only. Expect to see limited selection of ports. Mainland Spain ports are clearly not enthusiastic about reopening with the exception of Barcelona where Carnival have their own terminal hence sway.

I suppose the million dollar question is when will P&O be confident enough to cancel all their October and November sailings,  with consequent uproar and refunds, and start selling their new cruise schedule ?

 

[Chrisdriving]

Hmm but if they did , excuse me if i do not rush to book any of them, sounds terrible.

[molecrochip]

3 hours ago, Chrisdriving said:

Hmm but if they did , excuse me if i do not rush to book any of them, sounds terrible.

Each to their own.

 

To respond:

• Based on other Carnival, I don't expect Aurora and Arcadia to be top of the list to restart. There is a massive question mark over Arcadia's world cruise and Aurora's South American cruise. I think a key hint is that Cunard are Bringing Queen Elizabeth back from Australia. On the face of it, this is illogical as her next published cruises (November) are in Australia. This suggests that cruises are set to change.
• Re restricted cabin availability: There is anecdotal evidence that a certain percentage of cabins have been held back from sale in case of the need to sail at reduced capacity. It hopefully means that no passengers will need to be cancelled.

[Cruising Nomads]

I would have thought that Arcadia J014 would have had quite an high cabin occupancy rate with it been a cruise with ports not often visited. 

[ann141]

11 minutes ago, Cruising Nomads said:

I would have thought that Arcadia J014 would have had quite an high cabin occupancy rate with it been a cruise with ports not often visited. 

We are booked on J014 but if you look at cabins that are available, I think a lot of people have already cancelled or transferred their cruise.

[No pager thank you]

10 hours ago, wowzz said:

I suppose the million dollar question is when will P&O be confident enough to cancel all their October and November sailings,  with consequent uproar and refunds, and start selling their new cruise schedule ?

 

A helpful post from Molecrochip, thank you.

 

I agree Wowzz that this is the "million dollar question." Possibly the £500,000 question is;

 

"Will P&O plan an Iona Maiden at the traditional start of the Winter flu season?"

 

[terrierjohn]

47 minutes ago, No pager thank you said:

A helpful post from Molecrochip, thank you.

 

I agree Wowzz that this is the "million dollar question." Possibly the £500,000 question is;

 

"Will P&O plan an Iona Maiden at the traditional start of the Winter flu season?"

 

We are all making guesses, and without an announcement from P&O none of us really have a clue how P&O will re-start. 

However P&O have done short cruises in the past, so it's not unrealistic to think that maybe they will consider re-starting with a few 3,4 or 5 day cruises just to check out how any new protocols work, and equally importantly how passengers take to them.

However I would imagine they will want to progress rapidly back to their original itineraries, otherwise they will be faced with an ongoing nightmare of cancellations and new bookings.  Even so, if they intend to run the ships at less than capacity they may have to decide how to reduce the numbers  where current bookings exceed the new capacity limit, but this will be far less disruptive than trying to operate a totally new set of itineraries.

That will probably still necessitate some further cancellations, unless they feel confident enough to re-start before the current 15th October cancellation date,.  All of course will be dependant on approval from the govt and relaxation of the FCO travel guidance, as well as agreement with the ports of call.

Edited July 15, 2020 by terrierjohn

[Adawn47]

15 hours ago, ann141 said:

How about Arcadia and Aurora?

That's my concern too. Maybe the hint here is, large ships only for restart. I hope not.

Avril 

 

[ann141]

14 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

That's my concern too. Maybe the hint here is, large ships only for restart. I hope not.

Avril 

 

From a personal point of view I hope they do cancel my cruise on Arcadia 18 October.I'm not keen to be a guinea pig but I don t want to transfer yet when there is the possibility of P and O cancelling and therefore my being entitled to a refund..

[mercury7289]

Just now, ann141 said:

From a personal point of view I hope they do cancel my cruise on Arcadia 18 October.I'm not keen to be a guinea pig but I don t want to transfer yet when there is the possibility of P and O cancelling and therefore my being entitled to a refund..

Ann141

 

I think there is a very large queue, behind you, not only for your sailing, but also for many more well into 2021

[ann141]

1 minute ago, mercury7289 said:

Ann141

 

I think there is a very large queue, behind you, not only for your sailing, but also for many more well into 2021

I wouldn t mind waiting even 6 months for a refund of my small deposit.The annoying thing about previous refunds was the broken promises of first 2 weeks, then 40 days etc .If I know my refund will take a long time I don t mind and hopefully P and O have got themselves more organised now with a fairer system of refunding in date order.

[bee-ess]

We have a Caribbean cruise booked on Azura in Feb 2021 so would be keen to see the ship leave from Southampton on Oct 16th, empty or not. I think that if it does not go then, the season probably won't happen and we have to pay the balance with our TA on October 24th, so leaving on the 16th has a big bearing on our decision to pay the balance or cancel. She also needs a refit before then.

[Son of Anarchy]

7 minutes ago, bee-ess said:

We have a Caribbean cruise booked on Azura in Feb 2021 so would be keen to see the ship leave from Southampton on Oct 16th, empty or not. I think that if it does not go then, the season probably won't happen and we have to pay the balance with our TA on October 24th, so leaving on the 16th has a big bearing on our decision to pay the balance or cancel. She also needs a refit before then.

Been wondering about that.  From memory, it's been mentioned that some of the work can or may be undertaken whilst alongside in Southampton, or even whilst at anchor, but that she is also due a mandatory dry dock inspection as well prior to resuming passenger sailings.  There appear to be dry docks available.  Maybe PandO are keeping the dry dock issue back to the last minute so at keep her in ticket for passenger sailings for as long as possible?

[mickrory]

Be interesting to see if Britannia sails empty to the Caribbean on 23/10.

If it doesn't Winter schedule will be severely disrupted.

[molecrochip]

Princess have cancelled all sailings through December 15 except for five ships based out of Australia, which are cancelled through October 15.

 

Its the international mix of passengers and large number of ships home ported in the USA which creates the problem.