Princess cancels all cruises through March 2021. Will RCG do the same?

[twangster]

The virus is ravaging not only the US.  With nothing changing in the US and with Thanksgiving coming up you gotta know numbers will still be climbing in December from Thanksgiving gatherings and in January from Christmas and Hanukkah gatherings.    Some of that will spill into February.  

 

There is no way the CDC is letting ships sail until they see a trend downward.  A trends takes 2 or 3 months to be in evidence.   

 

Best case scenario is a February - March peak with a downward trend April into June and that's factoring in a vaccine beginning to be available to the masses and beginning to influence trends in April.   They'll use the ambiguity of the CSO to keep ships empty until the charts have a few months trending down. 

 

This won't be the last round of cancellations.  Let's hope ships are sailing by Independence day.   

[Pratique]

I'm hearing from people on the eastbound Harmony TA that their onboard purchases have been canceled. ???

[soremekun]

I have contacted my TA to move my April 2021 cruise to April 2022.

[bouhunter]

6 hours ago, travelhound said:

That's another line that had significant problems at the beginning of the pandemic.  They will be one of the last lines to sail.

Those issues are now ancient history and are unrelated to starting back up.

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, twangster said:

There is no way the CDC is letting ships sail until they see a trend downward.

There's nothing in the CDC CSO about numbers or trends - if a line can satisfy the current rules, they can sail.

[grandgeezer]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

There's nothing in the CDC CSO about numbers or trends - if a line can satisfy the current rules, they can sail.

The CDC can issue a do not sail order if they feel it's necessary.

[Iamcruzin]

This is no surprise to me as Princess and CCL in general have been doing this since March. It's what they do. RCI is doing what they have been doing since March. I believe they will continue to react in the same manner as they have been reacting all along until this has passed. This thread and the replies are on par with the previous threads on this topic.

 

What concerns me is all of the people who took the enhanced FCC options from all of the cruise lines are getting closer to the expiration date and have limited sailings that they can be applied to. To add insult to injury the sailings are limited to 7 days until Nov 2021 unless something changes. Even I won't book a cruise for under 9 days. Those extra 2 days makes all of the difference.

[travelhound]

17 hours ago, suzyluvs2cruise said:

 

Just because they had "significant problems" (your words) does not mean they aren't or can't do what is required by the CDC and get a Conditional Sailing Order. 

I agree, but from a PR standpoint, they will want to take some extra time.

[orville99]

Our next RCL cruise in the cross-hairs is at the end of March, and final payment date is at the end of December, so we're hanging tight until we have to make that payment to decide. If  they cancel after that, we still have the L&S option for 2022 available, or we'll take the refund option. We have 14 booked cruises now, and there aren't a lot of holes in the schedule to stuff in any more L&S cruises.

[Ourusualbeach]

8 minutes ago, travelhound said:

I agree, but from a PR standpoint, they will want to take some extra time.

I don't think that that it has anything to do with it being a PR move.

 

Demographics for Princess and HAL are completely different and their customers are not chomping at the bit to resume sailing like those on the mainstream cruise lines

[travelhound]

3 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I don't think that that it has anything to do with it being a PR move.

 

Demographics for Princess and HAL are completely different and their customers are not chomping at the bit to resume sailing like those on the mainstream cruise lines

I agree, the demographics may also have impacted their decision.

[Tree_skier]

4 hours ago, travelhound said:

I agree, but from a PR standpoint, they will want to take some extra time.

The value of PR diminishes with a lack of revenue.  After 9-12 months of no revenue PR will be valued similarly to new toilet brushes.  They'd be nice but they are not a priority right now.  All energy and resources are focused on getting ships approved for sailing and generating revenue.  Each line has established their own policies with regard to how they will cancel and what kind of compensation they offer.  Royal's has been good compared to some other lines.  That is the extent of PR goodwill you will see.  As @Iamcruzin said, lines will continue to do what they have done.  The goodwill of decades of loyal cruisers will continue to be spent as they attempt to minimize loss.

[travelhound]

19 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

The value of PR diminishes with a lack of revenue.  After 9-12 months of no revenue PR will be valued similarly to new toilet brushes.  They'd be nice but they are not a priority right now.  All energy and resources are focused on getting ships approved for sailing and generating revenue.  Each line has established their own policies with regard to how they will cancel and what kind of compensation they offer.  Royal's has been good compared to some other lines.  That is the extent of PR goodwill you will see.  As @Iamcruzin said, lines will continue to do what they have done.  The goodwill of decades of loyal cruisers will continue to be spent as they attempt to minimize loss.

Yup, but Princess is just one of many brands under the Carnival umbrella.  Carnival will start with the brand that it believes will have the greatest chance of a successful restart, mostly likely sailing out of Miami.  As discussed on this forum, there are many reasons why they will not start with Princess.

Edited November 21, 2020 by travelhound

[Tree_skier]

13 minutes ago, travelhound said:

Yup, but Princess is just one of many brands under the Carnival umbrella

There is no reason that Princess will have any greater or lesser success than any other CCL brand.  Princess ships will sail as soon as possible.  They will not delay for one minute for PR reasons. Neither will any other brand.

 

The corporate value of consumer goodwill is greatly over estimated by by the average consumer.

[FLSteve11]

I believe the Carnival umbrella has the issue that they did not keep any ships in US waters  (unlike RCI and NCL),  so they're going to have to deal with the 28-day timetable at the beginning of the CDC's orders

[firefly333]

8 minutes ago, FLSteve11 said:

I believe the Carnival umbrella has the issue that they did not keep any ships in US waters  (unlike RCI and NCL),  so they're going to have to deal with the 28-day timetable at the beginning of the CDC's orders

And that engineer said they havent been keeping up with some records rcl has been.

 

plus each and every ship has to pass the inspection for the hazardous dumping order from the miami judge. It wouldnt surprise me if they were behind rcl in restarting. 

[Seville2Cabo]

18 hours ago, soremekun said:

I have contacted my TA to move my April 2021 cruise to April 2022.

Are there any 2022 TA’s posted?

[Iamcruzin]

5 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I don't think that that it has anything to do with it being a PR move.

 

Demographics for Princess and HAL are completely different and their customers are not chomping at the bit to resume sailing like those on the mainstream cruise lines

Their demographic also skews older so they have more in the high risk category .

Edited November 21, 2020 by Iamcruzin

[travelhound]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

There is no reason that Princess will have any greater or lesser success than any other CCL brand.  Princess ships will sail as soon as possible.  They will not delay for one minute for PR reasons. Neither will any other brand.

 

The corporate value of consumer goodwill is greatly over estimated by by the average consumer.

Under the current CDC requirements, there will not be enough capacity to do all the testing and cleaning for every ship.  Carnival,  along with all the major brands, will have to decide what ships they think will be mostly likely to succeed.  They can then add additional ships, as capacity increases.

Edited November 21, 2020 by travelhound

[ipeeinthepool]

6 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I don't think that that it has anything to do with it being a PR move.

 

Demographics for Princess and HAL are completely different and their customers are not chomping at the bit to resume sailing like those on the mainstream cruise lines

 

I thought Princess and HAL were mainstream cruise lines.

Edited November 21, 2020 by ipeeinthepool

[travelhound]

11 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

I thought Princess and HAL were mainstream cruise lines.

Both brands have always catered to an older clientele.

[beerman2]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

And that engineer said they havent been keeping up with some records rcl has been.

 

plus each and every ship has to pass the inspection for the hazardous dumping order from the miami judge. It wouldnt surprise me if they were behind rcl in restarting. 

"And that engineer" , you mean Chengkp75??

[ipeeinthepool]

45 minutes ago, travelhound said:

Both brands have always catered to an older clientele.

 

Agreed, but they fill a lot of ships with the older clientele.  That makes them a mainstream cruise line.

[twangster]

21 hours ago, Biker19 said:

There's nothing in the CDC CSO about numbers or trends - if a line can satisfy the current rules, they can sail.

 

There's nothing in the CSO that states what cruise actually have to do to qualify to sail.  The CDC has not only been ambiguous with where the goal posts will be, they have also not said what sport is being played.  

 

Wanna take bets when the first ship will qualify?

[Biker19]

3 minutes ago, twangster said:

Wanna take bets when the first ship will qualify?

About a month after CDC signs off on their test cruises.