Azamara extends no sail suspension until June 30th 2021

[gnld]

6 hours ago, annandme said:

 

IMHO - The bigger problem will be getting the ship's crew vaccinated.  What "developed world" politician is going to offer up vaccine doses for cruise ship crew ahead of their own citizens!

 

And will those of us lucky enough to be vaccinated want to sail with an unvaccinated crew?

Cruise lines have already been announcing they'll have their crew 100% vaccinated, for just the reason you mention in your last line (and I agree with you).

[mdpa]

5 hours ago, gnld said:

Cruise lines have already been announcing they'll have their crew 100% vaccinated, for just the reason you mention in your last line (and I agree with you).

I can see why the cruise line cares…to minimize risk and I think it makes sense for crew to be vaccinated…especially if they were required to get flu shots previously.

 

However, once I am vaccinated, I will not care if anyone else around me gets vaccinated or wears a mask (except for their own well being).

 

Even now, I have the ability to choose whatever level of protection I feel that I need. Stay home, double mask, wear full PPE, use a motorcycle helmet (great for it’s multiple safety benefits).

 

I plan to get vaccinated ASAP, but since I already had a minor case of COVID back in November it will primarily be to make travel easier.

 

 

[cruise47]

We received our second Moderna shots  yesterday.. Does any feel liked, will Azamara be sailing in December 2021?
 

[mdpa]

48 minutes ago, cruise47 said:

We received our second Moderna shots  yesterday.. Does any feel liked, will Azamara be sailing in December 2021?
 

I hope so…cases are falling rapidly and should fall faster as the vaccine continues to rollout. I’d be nervous about July/August (but Cruise with Confidence makes it much better), but my hope we will be good to go by Fall.

 

As an optimist…I am also hoping to benefit from lower crowds, both on/off the ship.

[Aardvaark]

It's been two weeks since our second Pfizer shot, so we're supposedly "immune".   So now we feel as the old saying, "all dressed up and no place to go".  But we'll all get back aboard someday.

[puppymama1]

On 2/28/2021 at 7:40 AM, mdpa said:

I hope so…cases are falling rapidly and should fall faster as the vaccine continues to rollout. I’d be nervous about July/August (but Cruise with Confidence makes it much better), but my hope we will be good to go by Fall.

 

As an optimist…I am also hoping to benefit from lower crowds, both on/off the ship.

I hope you are right!  My husband has had both his Moderna shots and I get my second Pfizer shot on Friday.  We are hoping our October 27th Israel intensive cruise actually happens!  We've had last year's and this year's Princess Alaska cruises cancelled so we desperately want this one to actually happen!

[upwarduk]

On 3/1/2021 at 6:44 PM, puppymama1 said:

We are hoping our October 27th Israel intensive cruise actually happens! 

Royal Caribbean Group have home ported their new ship, Odyssey of the Seas, to Haifa, Israel, for Israelis only.

[uktog]

I think there’s a possibility Azamara might follow P and O given their ships are in the UK and do test sailings in UK Common Travel area (UK and Ireland) with vaccinated guests from the UK first. It would give them a good soft return to service test. 

[Riocca]

1 hour ago, uktog said:

I think there’s a possibility Azamara might follow P and O given their ships are in the UK and do test sailings in UK Common Travel area (UK and Ireland) with vaccinated guests from the UK first. It would give them a good soft return to service test. 

We’ve just received an email from Princess saying they will be introducing U.K. costal cruises for this summer shortly.
Given the current differing situations regarding vaccination in different countries this would seem a fair way to restart cruising. Problem still remains on how they would get staff vaccinated, but they must have a plan.

[excitedofharpenden]

4 hours ago, uktog said:

I think there’s a possibility Azamara might follow P and O given their ships are in the UK and do test sailings in UK Common Travel area (UK and Ireland) with vaccinated guests from the UK first. It would give them a good soft return to service test. 

This would appeal to me very much. I've not done a UK trip like that. We will just have to wait and see. 

 

Phil 

[silkismom]

Interesting, UK people must have received a different email from Princess. Ours (US) said

Pause in guest cruises extended to 2021 Europe sailings to and from London (Southampton)

Hi everyone,

As we continue to review and assess our operations following the recent UK Government announcement on the roadmap to ease lockdown and related international travel restrictions, we have cancelled UK-based guest cruise vacations, sailing roundtrip from Southampton, through September 25, 2021 on Sky Princess^®, Regal Princess^® and Island Princess^®. See Voyage Cancellation/Replacement List>

Unlike our previous pauses, for this March 3 pause all guests, whether paid in full or partially paid, will have an opportunity let us know how they would like us to handle their 2021 booking, from the options detailed below using this online form>

The deadline for selecting an option is April 15, 2021. After that time, all bookings that have not chosen an option will automatically receive the Future Cruise Credit (FCC) option outlined below.

[Riocca]

6 minutes ago, silkismom said:

Interesting, UK people must have received a different email from Princess. Ours (US) said

Pause in guest cruises extended to 2021 Europe sailings to and from London (Southampton)

Hi everyone,

As we continue to review and assess our operations following the recent UK Government announcement on the roadmap to ease lockdown and related international travel restrictions, we have cancelled UK-based guest cruise vacations, sailing roundtrip from Southampton, through September 25, 2021 on Sky Princess^®, Regal Princess^® and Island Princess^®. See Voyage Cancellation/Replacement List>

Unlike our previous pauses, for this March 3 pause all guests, whether paid in full or partially paid, will have an opportunity let us know how they would like us to handle their 2021 booking, from the options detailed below using this online form>

The deadline for selecting an option is April 15, 2021. After that time, all bookings that have not chosen an option will automatically receive the Future Cruise Credit (FCC) option outlined below.

This is the text of the email received from Princess, given the current situation it makes sense that they will be for U.K. customers only.

 

NEW short UK coastal cruises this summer* 

Recent announcements from the UK Government on the roadmap to the end of lockdown has given us all optimism that we will be able to have a summer break after all! It's clear from the roadmap that when restrictions are lifted, it'll be UK holidays that will restart first before the gradual return of international travel. With this in mind, we're introducing a series of new short UK breaks aboard our stunning Royal Class ships; Regal Princess and Sky Princess, offering relaxing holidays at sea -  much-needed getaways and reunions, we're sure. We can't wait to welcome you back onboard our Princess ships!

Keep a look out for further details on these new Southampton summer sailings in the coming weeks. 💌 #WeWillBeBack

 

[hamrag]

On 3/4/2021 at 8:33 AM, uktog said:

I think there’s a possibility Azamara might follow P and O given their ships are in the UK and do test sailings in UK Common Travel area (UK and Ireland) with vaccinated guests from the UK first. It would give them a good soft return to service test. 

 

And using Glasgow as their home port would also be good, albeit most unlikely!!

[Riocca]

I see the U.K. Government have now said that domestic cruises could restart from the 17th May, P&O and Princess were already planning U.K. cruises for the summer and P&O have said it will take a while to get up and running but welcomed the news.

For us it depends on the restrictions and conditions of cruising, really wouldn’t welcome multiple COVID tests during a holiday, we will have had our second vaccination by then so hopefully that would be enough. Our next planned cruise is the end of January 2022 and are hopeful that cruising as we know it might have returned by then as it would be well over two years since our last cruise.

[florisdekort]

Ultimately all cruise lines do the same. My June Seabourn cruise just got cancelled, so my next booking is now December on Azamara. I have to say this is the first time I'm at least a little hopeful that my next cruise will actually sail!

Floris

[Mrs Miggins]

Received email from Viking today about 3 Scenic Round Britain cruises for UK cruisers on at the end of May and early June.  Surely it would make sense for Azamara to do something similar perhaps early July ?

 

[Riocca]

12 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Received email from Viking today about 3 Scenic Round Britain cruises for UK cruisers on at the end of May and early June.  Surely it would make sense for Azamara to do something similar perhaps early July ?

 

Received the same email, more information is in the news section of CC. Cruises will be 8 days with no ports, passengers won’t require vaccinations but all passengers will have to have had a negative test before embarking and all passengers and crew will have to do non invasive PCR test every day. 
It’s a start I suppose but it’s a big no from us, rather wait and see what happens after the summer when all adults in the UK will have been offered the vaccine.

[ECCruise]

42 minutes ago, Riocca said:

Received the same email, more information is in the news section of CC. Cruises will be 8 days with no ports, passengers won’t require vaccinations but all passengers will have to have had a negative test before embarking and all passengers and crew will have to do non invasive PCR test every day. 
It’s a start I suppose but it’s a big no from us, rather wait and see what happens after the summer when all adults in the UK will have been offered the vaccine.

I think the 'no ports" is a key.  If there is an outbreak, minor or major, there would need to be no shuffling of the itinerary. 

 

No way we are sailing unless vaccinations are required. 

[Riocca]

18 minutes ago, ECCruise said:

I think the 'no ports" is a key.  If there is an outbreak, minor or major, there would need to be no shuffling of the itinerary. 

 

No way we are sailing unless vaccinations are required. 

Both P&O and Princess are going to be offering U.K. only cruises in the summer, it’s not clear if that will include port stops in the U.K. and Ireland or not. COVID protocols have not been confirmed either, we will be watching with interest.

[Mrs Miggins]

The Viking email say" you will have the opportunity to explore beautiful destinations close to home "

as well as "curated shore excursions" so one assumes they intend to dock.  

Don't think they have said whether vaccines will be required or not.

 

My friend's daughter lives in the Philippines and says that very few locals are being vaccinated = the vaccine is in short supply but also there is a great deal of mistrust of any vaccinations.  This is very sad and may impact crew on Azamara.

 

 

[ellbon]

13 hours ago, ECCruise said:

I think the 'no ports" is a key.  If there is an outbreak, minor or major, there would need to be no shuffling of the itinerary. 

 

No way we are sailing unless vaccinations are required. 

Interesting that you will not sail unless vaccinations are required.I just said that To  my agent today. So far only Crystal  has said that. We were talking about a booking on a family cruise. Her answer more or less that not everyone could get the vaccine by then. Really! By this summer I would think all adults in NC and other states could  get it. Some states now I know adults who are the 40 to 60 range are getting their shots.

[uktog]

33 minutes ago, ellbon said:

Interesting that you will not sail unless vaccinations are required.I just said that To  my agent today. So far only Crystal  has said that. We were talking about a booking on a family cruise. Her answer more or less that not everyone could get the vaccine by then. Really! By this summer I would think all adults in NC and other states could  get it. Some states now I know adults who are the 40 to 60 range are getting their shots.

Not even the well managed UK program can get two doses to all adults by summer.  Need to think beyond states on this one. That’s why cruising return will be cautious.  They have to consider beyond the USA, Australia and NZ are only just starting, the roll out in Europe is painfully slow and stop.  But I do agree I think all onboard (guests and crew) should be vaccinated.  Problems if they are not, ports may not even accept the vessel. 

[Riocca]

30 minutes ago, uktog said:

Not even the well managed UK program can get two doses to all adults by summer.  Need to think beyond states on this one. That’s why cruising return will be cautious.  They have to consider beyond the USA, Australia and NZ are only just starting, the roll out in Europe is painfully slow and stop.  But I do agree I think all onboard (guests and crew) should be vaccinated.  Problems if they are not, ports may not even accept the vessel. 

BBC are reporting this morning that the President of P&O U.K. has said all passengers will have to be fully vaccinated to board their ships.

[royallondon]

7 minutes ago, Riocca said:

BBC are reporting this morning that the President of P&O U.K. has said all passengers will have to be fully vaccinated to board their ships.

Yes, this is for their “UK getaways” operating from mid June to mid September.  He did say however, that following these cruises they would review their criteria for sailing.  The vaccination criteria for their “UK getaways” clearly can’t apply to their staff.  

[ellbon]

46 minutes ago, uktog said:

Not even the well managed UK program can get two doses to all adults by summer.  Need to think beyond states on this one. That’s why cruising return will be cautious.  They have to consider beyond the USA, Australia and NZ are only just starting, the roll out in Europe is painfully slow and stop.  But I do agree I think all onboard (guests and crew) should be vaccinated.  Problems if they are not, ports may not even accept the vessel. 

I totally agree on most points. I believe it will be for everyone over 50/so that cruise coul,go. The mega ships  are the scary ones.