We made a decision to cancel and re-book for 2022...

[Linsifer]

We’ve had a cruise on the Ruby to Alaska out of SF booked for August 9, 2021 since last December.  Today we decided that we’re going to cancel and rebook the same cruise for 2022 when sailings open for Alaska.  It’s just not worth the uncertainty.  And now I’m reading there’s a possibility we won’t even be able to get off the ship just to stroll around the ports, and in and out of gift ships.  I realize it’s several months away, but we don’t want to make the final payment 60 days before only to find out our free time in port will be restricted. 
So, instead we’ll celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2022 with the hopes that we have a viable vaccine and some herd immunity by then.  I do hope Princess will have a sale like the one we had:  Best. Sale. Ever.  Free WiFi, gratuities and drink package.   That was a big appeal for our current booking.   I feel relieved that we won’t need to deal with the pandemic on a ship next year.  I just hope the protocol will be much looser in 2022 providing we’ve got the virus under control. 

[skynight]

Believe this is a smart decision. We also have 2021 as a gap year with bookings in 2022. Hopefully 2022 will return to near normal.

[Tak8]

Hard to say what things will look like by this summer.  Switching to 2022 gives time for things to settle into a new groove.  I still have one booked for May.  I'll see what happens over the course of the next few months before deciding.

[susancruzs]

It is a tough call, I'm booked for Aug./Sept. but watching a PBS news program last night wasn't encouraging.  I live in NE Wisc., which is the worst situation in the country right now, very frustrating.  Getting back to a more "normal" would be great, fingers crossed.

[loving goldens]

We also reschedule for 2022... we are in Canada so we have to fly .... hoping 2022 is better....   :)

[Bgwest]

Excellent!

[joepeka]

4 hours ago, Tak8 said:

Hard to say what things will look like by this summer.  Switching to 2022 gives time for things to settle into a new groove.  I still have one booked for May.  I'll see what happens over the course of the next few months before deciding.

Agree with the OP and we're in the same situation as you with a May 2021 booking. Final payment is end of January and if the various factors don't appear to be well on the way to resolution by then (vaccine availability, Canada port openings, port availability for non-excursion visits, etc.), we will be cancelling and looking to 2022 instead.

Edited October 24, 2020 by joepeka

[dog]

I cancelled my April 2021 Br Isles cruise, will cancel my Jan 2021 cruise and have rebooked for Dec 2021   Hope FCC will be extended if cruising hasn’t resumed safely by then. Have to decide whatever you are comfortable with. 

[CineGraphic]

You don't think they'll have a vaccine before August 2021??

I think they'll have one before your final payment would have been due.

Once a vaccine is in place, I foresee lots of the restrictions you are worrying about, being lifted.

[Shaver John]

We also are calling 2021 a gap year in cruising. Taking 3 day trips to Residence Inns where we can cook and eat in room with decks and fireplaces and watch the ocean in a safe environment and not have to worry about weaving a mask or having someone put 15 folks in an elevator.   To all of you who are taking cruises in 2021 I wish you great sailing and hope you will have good trips without any problems.

[Linsifer]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

You don't think they'll have a vaccine before August 2021??

I think they'll have one before your final payment would have been due.

Once a vaccine is in place, I foresee lots of the restrictions you are worrying about, being lifted.

 Having a vaccine and assuring that enough people are vaccinated are two different things.  They might also bring them out in phases; first responders and senior citizens, etc.  Also, I’m reading where there could be a two-vaccine series at least 30 days apart.  Who knows.  So, for me, it’s not worth the uncertainty.  Maybe if we could cancel without penalty a week before, but anything could happen in 60 days.  In the meantime, we’ll rebook the train trip to the Grand Canyon for 2021 that we canceled this year.   And then we can celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2022 year on Princess!   Fingers crossed. 

[Northumberland]

We also had a cruise booked on the Star Princess that we cancelled about a month ago due to covid and low and behold, Princess cancelled the cruise the other day and transferred the Star and Golden to P&O.

We've since rebooked another cruise for April 2022.

We're hoping that covid will just be a bad memory by then...

 

[ehogan]

We are also delaying until 2022.  We had an expiring FCD so we applied it to the latest 2022 cruise we could.  We may delay further into 2022 when cruises are posted, hopefully we will be able to switch over our FCD.

 

For us (in our 70s) a vaccine and a cruise ship requirement for a vaccine Is the only way we would cruise.  

[MISTER 67]

13 hours ago, Linsifer said:

We’ve had a cruise on the Ruby to Alaska out of SF booked for August 9, 2021 since last December.  Today we decided that we’re going to cancel and rebook the same cruise for 2022 when sailings open for Alaska.  It’s just not worth the uncertainty.  And now I’m reading there’s a possibility we won’t even be able to get off the ship just to stroll around the ports, and in and out of gift ships.  I realize it’s several months away, but we don’t want to make the final payment 60 days before only to find out our free time in port will be restricted. 
So, instead we’ll celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2022 with the hopes that we have a viable vaccine and some herd immunity by then.  I do hope Princess will have a sale like the one we had:  Best. Sale. Ever.  Free WiFi, gratuities and drink package.   That was a big appeal for our current booking.   I feel relieved that we won’t need to deal with the pandemic on a ship next year.  I just hope the protocol will be much looser in 2022 providing we’ve got the virus under control. 

With cases spiking again and the vaccine now looking months away, I think you made the right move. We probably won't sail until 2022 either unless there's some kind of miracle and the virus dies away on it's own which happened with the 1918 pandemic.

[joepeka]

14 hours ago, Linsifer said:

I do hope Princess will have a sale like the one we had:  Best. Sale. Ever.  Free WiFi, gratuities and drink package.   That was a big appeal for our current booking.  

That will be our big regret if we have to cancel our May 2021 Royal booking. We have almost $1000 in OBC due to various perks and promo's and it will really pain us to lose that. 😢

[BrennerM]

19 hours ago, Linsifer said:

We’ve had a cruise on the Ruby to Alaska out of SF booked for August 9, 2021 since last December.  Today we decided that we’re going to cancel and rebook the same cruise for 2022 when sailings open for Alaska.  It’s just not worth the uncertainty.  And now I’m reading there’s a possibility we won’t even be able to get off the ship just to stroll around the ports, and in and out of gift ships.  I realize it’s several months away, but we don’t want to make the final payment 60 days before only to find out our free time in port will be restricted. 
So, instead we’ll celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2022 with the hopes that we have a viable vaccine and some herd immunity by then.  I do hope Princess will have a sale like the one we had:  Best. Sale. Ever.  Free WiFi, gratuities and drink package.   That was a big appeal for our current booking.   I feel relieved that we won’t need to deal with the pandemic on a ship next year.  I just hope the protocol will be much looser in 2022 providing we’ve got the virus under control. 

Princess has made the “best sale ever” perks a permanent option when booking a cruise.  You can choose the cheaper base (no frills) price or the price with the perks included.

[csopi]

We also have a March 2021 booking that I still haven’t cancelled but in all likelihood will have to.

I have already rebooked another for February 2022.

[Anubi]

We have cancelled our August Baltics 2021 and are hoping for a September 2022 Baltics.  

[Yehootu]

12 hours ago, BrennerM said:

Princess has made the “best sale ever” perks a permanent option when booking a cruise.  You can choose the cheaper base (no frills) price or the price with the perks included.

Where have you seen that this is a permanent choice? Just like the airlines, cruise companies make ALOT of money on up sell. Drink package=67.50 a day

                  Gratuities       =$15.50  "   "

                 Wifi                  =$9.97                   total if ala carte=$92.97

Princess now charging $40 a day. Don't see this being permanent, but hoping your source is correct.

 

[BrennerM]

1 hour ago, Yehootu said:

Where have you seen that this is a permanent choice? Just like the airlines, cruise companies make ALOT of money on up sell. Drink package=67.50 a day

                  Gratuities       =$15.50  "   "

                 Wifi                  =$9.97                   total if ala carte=$92.97

Princess now charging $40 a day. Don't see this being permanent, but hoping your source is correct.

 

 

 

I’ve not seen anything about the Princess Plus fare type ending anytime soon.  Basically it is charging you more than the basic fare but less than you’d pay for each of the add-ons separately.

[iancal]

Smart.

 

We have no intentions of cruising of giving any cruise line a dime of our money in the short term.  Even if we were so inclined as to book, we would no do so until the Nov. 30 year end numbers are announced in January.  The numbers will be telling and we may have more knowledge about covid and vaccines by then.

[Loki S]

We’re in the same position of holding off till 2022. Just now waiting for the Alaska itineraries to become available especially if our air credit is converted to a voucher with no expiry. Deep down we won’t put ourselves at any risk. A staple in our bags will be hand sanitiser, anti-bacterial wipes, gloves and masks. We already carry some of these items even before COVID-19.

[clarky213]

We also moved our April 2021 cruise on Royal out of LA to May 2022 on Discovery. 

Even in July when I decided to change, I wasn't convinced it would happen. Also didn't want to tie up over £5K in January and take the risk.

Looking more & more like I made the right decision.

 

We too will now be on a Cruise ship for our 30th Anniversary (Hopefully)😃.

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by clarky213

[nbsjcruiser]

I think you've made a smart decision. We had hoped that maybe we might be able to get away this fall when the virus broke out in the spring. That was dashed quickly as was our annual trip to the Florida sunshine in November. We quickly realized that a winter trip was out of the question as well and we're hoping that by Fall of 2021 things will be sufficiently controlled that we can get away to Florida for a couple of months but we're ruling out a cruise until 2022 sometime. I think its wise to wait and see how things will be handled on cruises over the next year or so before thinking about planning a cruise.

[AF-1]

I have faith a vaccine will be out there available to public by next summer Jun 2021.  Once people start getting shots they will build up their immunity and a lot of senior citizens will feel more comfortable about cruising.  Anyone on this thread who choose to postpone their cruises to 2022 have made a good choice.  This pandemic should be behind us by then; and the cruise lines will have a worked out all the things the CDC has required for them to sail again.  Life will be fun again.  Cheers and have a great week.  We now have two months left to the year; and we can put it all behind us.