New itineraries

[BBWC]

Just got an email from Regent that 2022 Caribbean itineraries on Navigator will start/end in Bridgetown, Barbados, starting with the January sailing from Cartagena. Looks like Regent decided not to wait for the CDC.

[mrlevin]

I wonder what will happen to our December Splendor voyage?

 

edited to add:

 

A number of Navigator cruises depart from Miami and San Juan before the Bridgetown itineraries so I don't imagine tied directly to CDC.

Edited March 3, 2021 by mrlevin

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

Time for the CDC to re-evaluate cruising. Biden says there will be enough vaccine for all Americans by May. 

[ronrick1943]

You also need to be careful once we can cruise, countries will be open.  We planned to fly into Italy for a week before the cruise---then fly to the port in another country.  Italy isn't open to the US or some EU countries -- Italy plans to reevaluate this on March 5----

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

14 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

You also need to be careful once we can cruise, countries will be open.  We planned to fly into Italy for a week before the cruise---then fly to the port in another country.  Italy isn't open to the US or some EU countries -- Italy plans to reevaluate this on March 5----

Agree... but it’s time for the discussion to begin now between the CDC and the cruise lines.  Otherwise, who knows?

My only comments pertain to these discussions beginning ASAP..

sheila

[Kiwifromkiev]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:43 AM, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

Time for the CDC to re-evaluate cruising. Biden says there will be enough vaccine for all Americans by May. 

The issue is that unless the cruise line makes vaccinations a compulsory prerequisite to board - there might be non-US travelers who have not been vaccinated yet. The other question - what about those who for health reasons can't be vaccinated - will cruise companies discriminate against them? Tough call all around. 

[JMARINER]

40 minutes ago, Kiwifromkiev said:

. The other question - what about those who for health reasons can't be vaccinated - will cruise companies discriminate against them? Tough call all around. 

From what the CDC website says, there are very very few people can not get the vaccination.

 

Furthermore, why would call this "discrimination?" Do you think  that these requirements are ones that the Cruise Lines particularly want to put in place? What would you have the Cruise Lines do?

 

CDC Contraindications of Covid vaccine.

 

J

[SWFLAOK]

I see the problem as being the ports that will be open to us, even if we can board the cruise. We have no desire to take a long cruise on a ship that can't dock, or where we can't disembark if we can dock.

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

17 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

I see the problem as being the ports that will be open to us, even if we can board the cruise. We have no desire to take a long cruise on a ship that can't dock, or where we can't disembark if we can dock.

We want to cruise. We have had our vaccines. We want to be on a Regent ship. We don’t care which ports. We want to sail out of Miami. We don’t care if it just means enjoying the ship. 
sheila

[fizzy]

19 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

I see the problem as being the ports that will be open to us, even if we can board the cruise. We have no desire to take a long cruise on a ship that can't dock, or where we can't disembark if we can dock.

I imagine that a cruise where nobody gets off would also be very expensive for the company. 24 hour a day eating and drinking would certainly put a strain on the service staff, not to mention extra provisioning costs. It seems that most people get off of the ship for a good part of the day in port as a rule.

[SWFLAOK]

3 hours ago, fizzy said:

I imagine that a cruise where nobody gets off would also be very expensive for the company. 24 hour a day eating and drinking would certainly put a strain on the service staff, not to mention extra provisioning costs. It seems that most people get off of the ship for a good part of the day in port as a rule.

I think you're wrong about the expense to the cruise line. If the country or town bans excursions, the cruise line isn't going to have to pay the local company.

The ship already has to plan for all the food and drink, and the staff is already paid for the whole cruise. They expect to provide service for everyone for the whole cruise.

We book an excursion in every port, since that's what we like to do. At most, we have a light lunch and a glass of wine if we're off the ship for a whole day cruise since we don't like to have a big meal or drink excessively while we're on a day long excursion with a lot of walking included.

Many excursions are only morning, or only afternoon. We bring water from the ship, and eat breakfast before we go,  and have a snack or tea after we get back. It doesn't reduce the amount of eating, drinking, or service that the ship had to provide versus the light lunch we would have eaten onboard. Many people don't take an excursion if they can walk around the local town  for a few hours on their own. They still eat and drink onboard, and the ship still needs to have the provisions and food and drink service fore everyone.

 But I don't really care about how much the cruise line is making or losing. I'm spending a huge amount of money for this cruise. I will not be happy if I have to stay onboard. I'm not taking a cruise to be on a boat. We had a boat of our own for over 30 years, and we enjoyed seeing everywhere it could take us. We sold that boat to travel to other places. I don't want to take a cruise where I stay on a cruise ship. I want to explore the places that it takes me.

[Pcardad]

#1 cost is fuel.

[mrlevin]

These new itineraries round trip Bridgetown still show an air credit of only $300.   I don't think you can buy air from USA anywhere near that cheap (maybe from Florida) so most will be enticed to include Regent coach air.  I wonder how that will work out.

[Got2Cruise]

23 hours ago, mrlevin said:

These new itineraries round trip Bridgetown still show an air credit of only $300.   I don't think you can buy air from USA anywhere near that cheap (maybe from Florida) so most will be enticed to include Regent coach air.  I wonder how that will work out.

LaG non stop is $486 on Jet Blue. Only 4.5 hours. Otherwise with layover it’s 7.5 plus. I’d take the credit on the direct flight. I can be in Lond

[rallydave]

18 hours ago, Got2Cruise said:

LaG non stop is $486 on Jet Blue. Only 4.5 hours. Otherwise with layover it’s 7.5 plus. I’d take the credit on the direct flight. I can be in Lond

Believe the biggest problem will be lack of lift (available seats) to the Caribbean ports.  Even before the Pandemic most flights to the Caribbean Islands were extremely limited and on relatively small planes.  In addition other than a few east coast cities most flights were out of South Florida.  Perhaps fly people into Miami and then charters.  Once the cruises start will be a challenge to book flights on your own and with the limited availability prices will significantly increase.

[Got2Cruise]

5 hours ago, rallydave said:

Believe the biggest problem will be lack of lift (available seats) to the Caribbean ports.  Even before the Pandemic most flights to the Caribbean Islands were extremely limited and on relatively small planes.  In addition other than a few east coast cities most flights were out of South Florida.  Perhaps fly people into Miami and then charters.  Once the cruises start will be a challenge to book flights on your own and with the limited availability prices will significantly increase.

DeSantis is getting into the act trying to get the US Cruises from FL going. Huge loss of revenue for FL. If US citizens can fly from their home city to Nassau, why can’t they fly to Miami. Mandatory vax and negative Covid test can still apply. Same 7 day cruise. 
 

 

[rallydave]

16 minutes ago, Got2Cruise said:

DeSantis is getting into the act trying to get the US Cruises from FL going. Huge loss of revenue for FL. If US citizens can fly from their home city to Nassau, why can’t they fly to Miami. Mandatory vax and negative Covid test can still apply. Same 7 day cruise. 
 

 

Has nothing to do about flying to Miami vs Nassau.  IN fact likely most of the people going on the ship in Nassau will fly thru or from Miami. And therein is the problem with starting in Nassau, the lack of flights and small planes going to Nassau.  Non-stops to Nassau are only available from a liminited number of cities.   It's about the CDC not providing the details that the cruise lines can implement so they can cruise the test cruises and then get conditional approval to cruise thru US waters.  And the conditional approval is months away from occurring.

[Kwaj girl]

5 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Has nothing to do about flying to Miami vs Nassau.  IN fact likely most of the people going on the ship in Nassau will fly thru or from Miami. And therein is the problem with starting in Nassau, the lack of flights and small planes going to Nassau.  Non-stops to Nassau are only available from a liminited number of cities.   It's about the CDC not providing the details that the cruise lines can implement so they can cruise the test cruises and then get conditional approval to cruise thru US waters.  And the conditional approval is months away from occurring.

 

We are flying from Atlanta to Nassau to board Crystal this summer.  Other east coast cities will also have flights direct to Nassah so hopefully people will be able to connect thru them from their home towns. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Kwaj girl