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Anyone recently booked a cruise yet? I'm tempted.


Ihearttravel11
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I was just checking out cruise prices here on Cruise Critic and realized that our April 2021 Panorama cruise had a diamond next to it. Clicked on it and realized that we actually booked an Easter cruise! Bonus! Kind of Ironic considering our first cruise on Panorama was unknowingly booked (booked for birthdays, not football) during NFL playoffs (pretty much a holiday weekend in our house) and of course the 49ers were in contention. It was a super fun cruise. I'm a little extra excited about this cruise now! It will be our first official holiday cruise. I wonder if there will be a special menu at dinner? Extra pumped now! 🥳

Edited by cruisingguy007
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I called Carnival today because  my January cruise was recently cancelled.  The customer service rep handled everything very quickly.  I was able to move everything I paid to a new cruise and received the $600 OBC.  I guess they are used to doing this now because the entire process took less than 15 minutes.  I am looking forward to my April cruise on the Mardi Gras and hope that masks will be a thing of the past by then.

In the mean time, I have saved a lot of money by not cruising and made some extra cash from trading travel stocks.  There is always a bright side.  I hope cruising starts long before my April cruise.

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2 hours ago, TNcruising02 said:

In the mean time, I have saved a lot of money by not cruising and made some extra cash from trading travel stocks.  There is always a bright side.  I hope cruising starts long before my April cruise.

Wow. It's like we're the same but replace April with January for me.

 

The travel ones are so consistent that it's been working pretty well.

Edited by xDisconnections
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51 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

Wow. It's like we're the same but replace April with January for me.

 

The travel ones are so consistent that it's been working pretty well.


They dropped today, so it was a good opportunity.  I am blown away by how easy it has been and I have never traded in my life before this pandemic.  Anyway, a person needs to make lemonade out of lemons. haha.  I am ok with my January cruise being cancelled because it was right before New Year's Eve and I was concerned about them cancelling right before the cruise. Now I can look forward to my April cruise and if cruising begins successfully before then, I am always open to snagging a last minute cruise.

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8 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:


They dropped today, so it was a good opportunity.  I am blown away by how easy it has been and I have never traded in my life before this pandemic.  Anyway, a person needs to make lemonade out of lemons. haha.  I am ok with my January cruise being cancelled because it was right before New Year's Eve and I was concerned about them cancelling right before the cruise. Now I can look forward to my April cruise and if cruising begins successfully before then, I am always open to snagging a last minute cruise.

Yup, $CCL and $RCL were on sale today!

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13 hours ago, cruisingguy007 said:

I was just checking out cruise prices here on Cruise Critic and realized that our April 2021 Panorama cruise had a diamond next to it. Clicked on it and realized that we actually booked an Easter cruise! Bonus! Kind of Ironic considering our first cruise on Panorama was unknowingly booked (booked for birthdays, not football) during NFL playoffs (pretty much a holiday weekend in our house) and of course the 49ers were in contention. It was a super fun cruise. I'm a little extra excited about this cruise now! It will be our first official holiday cruise. I wonder if there will be a special menu at dinner? Extra pumped now! 🥳

Braised Rabbit with a side of eggs benedict?

 

Sorry, I'll show myself out now...

Edited by ProgRockCruiser
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21 minutes ago, LongHill44 said:

We were looking at maybe this coming spring but to play it safe, we have decided the week of July 4th would be best for us.

 

Is it worth the risk to try and book this now?

In my opinion: no-one knows.  Will July 2022 be safe?  No-one knows.

 

This COVID-19 thing could be behind us by January (2021), or could be here for the next two years.  There are too many unknowns, including human behavioral unknowns, that are at play.

 

But look at it this way: if you book now, final payment will be early-April-ish.  By then, you will know whether you want to cruise or stay in your Custom Isolation Bubble Chamber (TM) for another six months.  If the cruise seems unlikely or undesirable, re-book it further out.

 

If I was looking to book in that timeframe, I would, but I am able to afford losing any deposit I put down (should the whole industry collapse, cats sleeping with dogs, etc).  YMMV.

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Okay, and another question....

I have a large gift card for Carnival. Will it expire?

Without risking "my" money (gc was a Christmas gift), if I book now, I could book out to 2022, for a basic 4-7 night Mexico cruise out of California. And if things go positive for Carnival, I could pay off when final payment is due.

Ugh. Does this make sense?

Thanks! Y'all seem to know much more about this than I do. 

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17 minutes ago, Ihearttravel11 said:

Okay, and another question....

I have a large gift card for Carnival. Will it expire?

Without risking "my" money (gc was a Christmas gift), if I book now, I could book out to 2022, for a basic 4-7 night Mexico cruise out of California. And if things go positive for Carnival, I could pay off when final payment is due.

Ugh. Does this make sense?

Thanks! Y'all seem to know much more about this than I do. 

The gift card won't expire.  I had a few sitting around so I booked a cruise in December so if it goes great and if not the GC turns into FCC with OBC.  It was a better option for me than sitting unused in my closet.  

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41 minutes ago, regoodwinjr said:

The gift card won't expire.  I had a few sitting around so I booked a cruise in December so if it goes great and if not the GC turns into FCC with OBC.  It was a better option for me than sitting unused in my closet.  

Good to know. Thanks! My one gc turned into 3 due to different refunds for cruises. Thank you! 

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And I did it. I decided that my family and I would go on a cruise in August 2022 to Alaska.
After using the 3 gift cards, my out of pocket for the deposit was only $97. Worth the risk.
I will wait until closer to the trip to pay it off, and just put money aside each month until then.
:)   Now I am excited!

 

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I just booked for December 6, 2020 on Royal a couple of days ago (I think they are going to start sailing by then, if not worst case is I get 125% FCC).  I'm going to be using my FCC from my cancelled trans Atlantic to book something on Carnival for spring 2021.

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About a year ago we booked the Legend to the Panama Canal for December, 2020. I expect that will be cancelled, so a few months ago I booked the same cruise (with a change from Legend to Pride) for December, 2021. Then I saw the six day cruise just before that so I added a booking for that, so I am hoping for a back-to-back in 2021. Then I saw a Journeys cruise in Nov-Dec, 2022 and snagged a porthole (PH) cabin for that. So one way or another, we are going to see the Panama Canal. I suspect we will have plenty of time to read the history of the canal between now and whichever cruise works out.

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I've booked several cruises (15+) since this pandemic began.  The last two as recently as this week.  In essence, I feel cruising will return in some form or another, but the bigger question to me is how will Carnival's financial downturn affect future pricing.

 

Accordingly, after consulting with the wife, we decided to book multiple cruises between November 2020 and April 2023.  At least we're locked in on the pricing in case prices start to escalate in the near future.

 

Garnett

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2 hours ago, N7786W Flyer said:

At least we're locked in on the pricing in case prices start to escalate in the near future.

That's one of the reasons I decided to just do it. The price was considered "average", and I don't want to risk it going up. And looking at future cruises, even into 2022, they seem to be filling up somewhat quickly. Probably due to people rebooking cancelled trips.

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4 hours ago, N7786W Flyer said:

 

 

Accordingly, after consulting with the wife, we decided to book multiple cruises between November 2020 and April 2023.  At least we're locked in on the pricing in case prices start to escalate in the near future.

 

Garnett

Smart move. Buy it now when the price is low. I am already done booking cruises for 2021 (4 in total) and just booked another cruise in 2022 over the weekend.

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