Any info on test cruises?

[Margarita Jane]

You guys always have great info before I see it anywhere else. Are there any test cruises actually happening now? 

[mom says]

Now? No.

[HaveWeMetYet]

If you follow cruise travel news on Youtube the general consensus is that the cruise lines are not going to do test cruises for at least a month. The reasons why?

Corona Virus is too high in the US to take the chance on it.

A new CDC director will take over in late January and that organization could take a more aggressive approach to trying to contain covid which could mean scrapping the long and vague test cruise rules and just go back to a "No Sail Order" until the CDC deems covid under control.

New variants of covid are causing concern.

And finally, having an outbreak on a "test cruise" would cause extreme harm to all cruise lines in general.

 

Sadly, as time goes by, we are getting further and further from cruising resuming not closer. I really don't see cruise lines starting back up  in a big way until Covid is nearly wiped out however that occurs.

[jelayne]

Before there are any test cruises with passengers they need to get crew on the ships through the quarantine period and trained.  Currently the ships have the minimum staffing of about 130 crew required to maintain the systems on the ships.

[ipeeinthepool]

6 hours ago, HaveWeMetYet said:

If you follow cruise travel news on Youtube the general consensus is that the cruise lines are not going to do test cruises for at least a month. The reasons why?

Corona Virus is too high in the US to take the chance on it.

A new CDC director will take over in late January and that organization could take a more aggressive approach to trying to contain covid which could mean scrapping the long and vague test cruise rules and just go back to a "No Sail Order" until the CDC deems covid under control.

New variants of covid are causing concern.

And finally, having an outbreak on a "test cruise" would cause extreme harm to all cruise lines in general.

 

Sadly, as time goes by, we are getting further and further from cruising resuming not closer. I really don't see cruise lines starting back up  in a big way until Covid is nearly wiped out however that occurs.

 

How can the people on YouTube be any more informed than the experts on CC?

[ipeeinthepool]

There was an article from the Celebrity marketing VP that indicated that require shoreside updates were nearing completion and should be finished by the end of the year.  That would enable test cruises to happen in January.  After a successful completion of a test cruise there would be a 60 day waiting period before cruises could resume.  That aligns with the current cancellation of cruises through the end of February.

[grandgeezer]

6 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

There was an article from the Celebrity marketing VP that indicated that require shoreside updates were nearing completion and should be finished by the end of the year.  That would enable test cruises to happen in January.  After a successful completion of a test cruise there would be a 60 day waiting period before cruises could resume.  That aligns with the current cancellation of cruises through the end of February.

You have to allow for getting the crew here and contacting the potential customers, allowing them time to make plans, and any other logistics that need to happen.. That would put it back to at least April.

Remember, it will start with shorter cruises. limited amount of ships, and limited amount of passengers.

[ipeeinthepool]

2 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

You have to allow for getting the crew here and contacting the potential customers, allowing them time to make plans, and any other logistics that need to happen.. That would put it back to at least April.

Remember, it will start with shorter cruises. limited amount of ships, and limited amount of passengers.

 

From Seatrade-Cruise News:

 

Test cruises and 60-day wait

'There are a lot of things we have to do,' under the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's conditional sail order, noted Celebrity's Dondra Ritzenthaler, SVP sales, trade support & service.

'Phase One (crew testing and building the laboratory capacity needed to test future passengers) we think will be done by the end of December. And then Phase Two happens where we ask permission to do the [trial cruises] then we have time to do that, then we have to wait 60 days after that,' Ritzenthaler said.

 

'... Now we know that once those clocks start to tick at the 60 days, then we're back. So we're encouraged.'

'The end is really near'

In early December, Celebrity announced it won't be sailing before March.

'We are hopeful that we can be back in March,' Ritzenthaler told the Signature owners and travel advisors. 'It depends on when the CDC's 60-day window starts to tick for us, based on them giving us permission. But whether it be March, or whether it be April, I'm so confident that the end is really near.'

[Sam.Seattle]

i am going to continue to be hopeful that March is when we see cruising resume!

[wrk2cruise]

I read that article a couple of weeks ago as well.   Does anyone know where the 60 wait period came from after the test cruises?  I didn't see anything like that in the current order.  Is that just the time the CDC will take to review the application to approve sailings?

[Arizona Wildcat]

3 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

I read that article a couple of weeks ago as well.   Does anyone know where the 60 wait period came from after the test cruises?  I didn't see anything like that in the current order.  Is that just the time the CDC will take to review the application to approve sailings?

It is not in the CDC Guidelines that I could see but rather discussed in a couple interviews - also guidelines never made into a formal order thus easy to modify.  I would expect some changes after January 20th.  Lots of changes in people with the new administration.  Will they ask for trail cruises before the administration change?  No idea but I would.

Hard to see anything until COVID number come down.  Thus March possible.  April more likely.  A lot depends on vaccine availability.  If J&J delayed again beyond February so will cruises be delayed.