Let's speculate: Europe 2021 Cruises

[HALrunner]

Will HAL's European 2021 cruise season happen?

 

If so:

 

Will cruises be limited to 7 days (either by HAL or EU restrictions)? 

Going ashore limited to HAL excursions? 

Vaccine required?

 

I've been sad to see how quiet the boards, and especially roll calls, have been. Landlubbers in my circle either are unaware cruising ever "paused" or one would be certifiably insane to cruise in 2021.

 

This is simply a post to generate discussion amongst fellow "homesick" Mariners! 

 

[Lady Arwen]

We’re booked on the TA in October on the new Rotterdam VII.  Hoping that all goes well.  We had originally been booked for Oct. 10, but because of the new regulations, it was pushed forward to Oct. 20th arriving in Ft Lauderdale Nov. 3rd.  Folks on our roll call are booking independent excursions and ship sponsored excursions as a backup.  We’re planning on a meet and greet, but we understand that HAL could very well restrict these activities.  Everything is on a “wait and see” basis right now, but we’re all hopeful.  Our roll call and the roll calls for the other Rotterdam sailings in Europe starting in July are quite active.  Nice to be a part of such optimism right now!

[foodsvcmgr]

Review the protocols used by those lines such as MSC that have resumed limited operations in Europe and you will get an idea of some of the restrictions.

Hopefully as vaccinations progress, the sailing conditions will begin to ease.

[cruisemom42]

I still have on the books a BTB Med cruise on Celebrity Constellation.  It was originally scheduled for Oct 2020, and I did Celebrity's "lift and shift" to move it to late September 2021 with a very similar itinerary.

 

Will it go?  I have no idea at this point but there is no good reason to either cancel it or move it for now, so I will wait it out. I hope it will sail and that I will feel safe to be onboard, but that remains to be seen -- I'll be keeping a close eye on how many are vaccinated, how the infection rates look in various places (including the US, as they would have to allow me to fly to Italy to board....)

 

Also, I would not be very happy should it be required that we take ship tours. I'm a frequent traveler/cruiser to Europe (especially the Med countries) and, aside from the fact that I know how to get around on my own, I am guessing that few shore excursions would be offered that would meet my somewhat esoteric tastes.

[KirkNC]

We are also booked in September 2021.  I don’t give it a high chance of going without restrictions that would cause us to cancel.  We don’t mind a vaccine requirement, in fact we want one and probably would not sail without one.  Even mask wearing is not a concern, we have gotten pretty used to that.   The killer for us would be a restriction of only ship excursions to get off the ship.  That’s a deal breaker for us.  

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

We are also booked in September 2021.  I don’t give it a high chance of going without restrictions that would cause us to cancel.  We don’t mind a vaccine requirement, in fact we want one and probably would not sail without one.  Even mask wearing is not a concern, we have gotten pretty used to that.   The killer for us would be a restriction of only ship excursions to get off the ship.  That’s a deal breaker for us.  

Are there enough of us who see ship only excursions are a deal breaker? Or are we just a small vocal minority?

[KirkNC]

13 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Are there enough of us who see ship only excursions are a deal breaker? Or are we just a small vocal minority?

Hard to say as CC is a small yet vocal part of the cruise community.  I think Caribbean and Alaska cruises it maybe less critical as you have more cruise newbies.  I am not one who believes the industry wants to control the excursions just for the money, I think it is based on medical and scientific recommendations.  I am hopeful that required ship excursions will be one of the first protocols to be punted.

[vino100]

I have a Norway cruise on princess planed for August this year. I will cancel if ship sponsored excursions are our only choice. 
I guess time will tell. 

[vicd1969]

I am booked on a 12-day June cruise on the Volendam and an 7-day August one on the Nieuw Statedam. The after-effect of rolling over FCCs from canceled cruises in 2020 I guess. Not too optimistic that the June one will proceed without major restrictions, if at all. Slightly brighter outlook about the 7-day Norway one, but only because it's 2 more months and just 7 days long. But still have a few months until final payment, and no harm in waiting to see what news developments come from Europe and HAL. In either case, like most of you, I'll cancel if one of the restrictions is having to go on ship-sponsored excursions.

[dfish]

I am hoping my September Norway cruise on the Rotterdam is a go.  We would welcome the requirement for a vaccine to sail.  Not having a vaccine requirement might be the deal breaker for us.   We don't mind the masks and will wear them if required.  We haven't decided about the ship's excursions yet.  We could probably live with that, but time will tell.  It is way too early to know what conditions will be like in September.

[Horizon chaser 1957]

4 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Are there enough of us who see ship only excursions are a deal breaker? Or are we just a small vocal minority?

Enough to do what? North American tourists are not exactly welcome in most countries right now. Cruise ship passengers are even less so.  It may be different by September - but it may not. There will almost certainly be ports where reluctant permission from local authorities to come ashore will be limited to tightly controlled excursions that avoid local contact. I wouldn’t expect to be welcome with open arms and allowed to roam freely before 2022. Getting enough passengers to complain to the front desk isn’t going to change that.

[Balliett]

I am less pessimistic.  Why wouldn't a country, dependent in part on tourists, welcome passengers who could show a shot card for the Covid vaccine?   And why wouldn't HAL let them off and back on?

[KirkNC]

2 hours ago, Balliett said:

I am less pessimistic.  Why wouldn't a country, dependent in part on tourists, welcome passengers who could show a shot card for the Covid vaccine?   And why wouldn't HAL let them off and back on?

I am hoping you are correct.

[BobbiSox]

It's difficult to be optimistic, considering that I live in the US where the virus was handled by nincompoops and the whole world took note. I can't imagine that US citizens are going to be welcomed with open arms anywhere in the world anytime soon. I am seven days away from HAL 5-star mariner status, so believe me, I want to sail. Just hoping it happens in my lifetime! 

[ontheweb]

11 hours ago, vino100 said:

I have a Norway cruise on princess planed for August this year. I will cancel if ship sponsored excursions are our only choice. 
I guess time will tell. 

Our of course cancelled cruise this past summer was a Norwegian fjords cruise on Princess. And the one thing I noticed about the offered excursions was that they were very, very expensive.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Hard to say as CC is a small yet vocal part of the cruise community.  I think Caribbean and Alaska cruises it maybe less critical as you have more cruise newbies.  I am not one who believes the industry wants to control the excursions just for the money, I think it is based on medical and scientific recommendations.  I am hopeful that required ship excursions will be one of the first protocols to be punted.

I agree that at the moment the cruise only bubble excursion limitation is based on medical and scientific recommendations, but I worry that once they see that they can do this and people will accept it, that they will keep it. They just might see it as a means to make up some of the revenue that they have lost. 

[Mandalay1903]

We're booked for 24 days in the Eastern Mediterranean beginning in mid-May 2021. We would take this cruise:

• if we receive the vaccines in time [not looking great right now]
• if our health allows [probably OK]
• if the itineraries stay relatively intact [I'm very doubtful that this will be the case]
• even if the shore excursions are limited to HAL's and had satisfactory content
• if the destination countries are fully open for tourists [doubtful]
• even if masks were required onboard [in the future we'll probably always wear masks on planes, the Main Stage and other crowded places to avoid "cruise crud" and colds]

We'd be thrilled if vaccines were required as a prerequisite to sail.  And we'd probably re-book the similar itineraries for 2022 if they are available.

[kazu]

9 hours ago, Balliett said:

I am less pessimistic.  Why wouldn't a country, dependent in part on tourists, welcome passengers who could show a shot card for the Covid vaccine?   And why wouldn't HAL let them off and back on?

 

I am of the same mind as you.  I think a proof of covid vaccine will become as necessary as a passport down the road.  

I am hopeful that with that in hand and confirmation that ships have vaccinated people on board that they will be welcomed.  Time will tell but I am somewhat hopeful for our November cruise.  That is, if the vaccines can get in peoples’ arms.

[srpilo]

My biggest fear is, that HAL decides that they can't fill or can't profitably operate 3 ships in the Med... I'd be pretty confident that the new-build Rotterdam will sail all her itinerary's from Amsterdam, but which of the 3 older existing ships in the Med (NS, Volendam, Westerdam) will be on the chopping block to lessen capacity if there's a late start of shorten European season ??

These type doubts make it hard with just months to go to make the hard decisions needed for a European cruise (air, hotels, tour's, ect..)

 

 

Was really hoping 2021 would mark the return to a bit of travel normalcy, but maybe not ..ummm

 

[kazu]

13 minutes ago, srpilo said:

These type doubts make it hard with just months to go to make the hard decisions needed for a European cruise (air, hotels, tour's, ect..)

People on our roll call are using flexible air with points or HAL’s flight ease (flexible) as that can be cancelled before final payment.  We are booking our hotels with refundable (cancel without penalty) rates and any tours that require a deposit have been pencilled in and payment won’t be made until 3 months out (the tour operator actually recommended this).  Most of my tours do not require a deposit.

 

I am hopeful our cruise and land travel pre-cruise can go as planned in November and things improve greatly by the spring/summer (if not sooner).

 

In any case, we are hopefully planning and not sitting on the side lines.  

 

We do want to be vaccinated before we sail and we don’t want to be restricted to HAL tours.  Like cruisemom42, we have our own ideas of what we would like to do in our ports 😉 and HAL’s tours don’t offer anything that matches our planning.

[iancal]

Absolutely zero interest in any 2021 cruise-Europe or otherwise.

Edited January 5, 2021 by iancal

[cruisemom42]

10 hours ago, Balliett said:

I am less pessimistic.  Why wouldn't a country, dependent in part on tourists, welcome passengers who could show a shot card for the Covid vaccine?   And why wouldn't HAL let them off and back on?

 

It will depend on the particular country's focus.

 

The vaccines have not yet been proven to stop or reduce transmission of the virus, only to lessen severity of infection/illness. 

 

With that in mind, countries with a focus on preventing spread of infection within their population may well decide not to allow tourists from countries where the infection rates are still quite high. I'm thinking of countries like Australia, New Zealand, and some Asian countries where infection rates are almost non-existent. But other countries could still take that decision if they feel the risk is high.

 

Alternatively, if the country already has a high level of COVID spread/infection, they may not care as much about virus spread as about ensuring that the number of cases do not overwhelm available health care resources. That is where vaccination may help -- if there is confidence that most people vaccinated will not require intensive care.

 

In my opinion, it's still too early to tell which way things will go in 2021.

 

 

 

[srpilo]

2 minutes ago, kazu said:

People on our roll call are using flexible air with points or HAL’s flight ease (flexible) as that can be cancelled before final payment.  We are booking our hotels with refundable (cancel without penalty) rates and any tours that require a deposit have been pencilled in and payment won’t be made until 3 months out (the tour operator actually recommended this).  Most of my tours do not require a deposit.

 

I am hopeful our cruise and land travel pre-cruise can go as planned in November and things improve greatly by the spring/summer (if not sooner).

 

In any case, we are hopefully planning and not sitting on the side lines.  

 

We do want to be vaccinated before we sail and we don’t want to be restricted to HAL tours.  Like cruisemom42, we have our own ideas of what we would like to do in our ports 😉 and HAL’s tours don’t offer anything that matches our planning.

 

Didn't say it was not possible, I said it's harder. There's more to planning a cruise then just booking cancelable tours or even flights. There's the personal allotment of your time and vacation resources too. Not everyone is retired or can change there vacation time or plans at the drop of a hat.

My point was, it's one thing when all cruises and itinerary's were canceled directly because of the pandemic, during these cancellations every aspect of the travel food chain was affected in the same way , and at the same time and were understood by all. But it's another thing all together when the cruise lines now start canceling cruises and entire seasons, after taking cruise deposits for the last year simply because of their operational changes or ajustments to their profitablity, and by doing so hang their customers and their plans out the window.

Banning changes or cancellations as a direct result of the pandemic, after taking deposits for over a year for specific cruises the cruise lines should have a obligation when possible to honor their schedules to their customers, and not use the pandemic has a cost saving strategy tool, it's much like airlines who fly scheduled flights even if there's only one passenger onboard are obligated to honor their schedules, and do.

 

just saying...

[iancal]

We are aware of many airlines that are cancelling and/or consolidating flights.  Airlines do not fly empty planes unless there is another reason to do such as protecting spots at certain airports.

 

Moreover, my understanding is that airline schedules 90 days are certainly not firm.  We have been looking at international flights but we are aware that flights are tentative.

 

Our other concern is that some airlines, especially the regionals, may cease to exist entirely or in their present form by the Oct/Nov timeframe.

Edited January 5, 2021 by iancal

[bennybear]

4 hours ago, Mandalay1903 said:

We're booked for 24 days in the Eastern Mediterranean beginning in mid-May 2021. We would take this cruise:

• if we receive the vaccines in time [not looking great right now]
• if our health allows [probably OK]
• if the itineraries stay relatively intact [I'm very doubtful that this will be the case]
• even if the shore excursions are limited to HAL's and had satisfactory content
• if the destination countries are fully open for tourists [doubtful]
• even if masks were required onboard [in the future we'll probably always wear masks on planes, the Main Stage and other crowded places to avoid "cruise crud" and colds]

We'd be thrilled if vaccines were required as a prerequisite to sail.  And we'd probably re-book the similar itineraries for 2022 if they are available.

Well said,  we’re waiting too but are concerned that the Westerdam is now in the Pacific.  So hard to plan, especially when one thinks it will be cancelled.  We would prefer 2022 as well! 

Edited January 5, 2021 by bennybear