RCL is Sailing Out of the Bahamas, When Will Regent (NCL) Start Up?

[Ladys Mom]

Today, RCL announced that they will start sailing one ship out of the Bahamas starting July 1.  They will require all adults to have been vaccinated for Covid, and all children will have to have a negative PCR test.  All cruises will be seven days with two days at their private island.  I don't understand why NCL has not made the same announcement.  Even if Regent, like Crystal, just did the seven day cruises out of the Bahamas, it would be a positive start.

[mrlevin]

Concur!  RCL, Celebrity, Crystal, Silversea, and a number of lines in UK and Europe will start up by June or early July; where oh where is NCLH?

 

[Pcardad]

Better to show up late to the party then promise to attend and cancel at the last minute...

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

I think it’s time Regent stepped up to the plate!

sheila

[Pcardad]

I think they are balancing resuming scheduled runs in Europe vs week long Carib cruises...and I think they would prefer to start in Europe. The ships are there...easier to get the crew there. And we may be getting some news from the CDC soon that might change things.  

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

1 minute ago, Pcardad said:

I think they are balancing resuming scheduled runs in Europe vs week long Carib cruises...and I think they would prefer to start in Europe. The ships are there...easier to get the crew there. And we may be getting some news from the CDC soon that might change things.  

I hope that Regent can start sailing in Europe this summer. I also think that it’s time for the CDC to provide direction to the cruise lines.... so many people are waiting to hear. 
sheila

[labonnevie]

3 hours ago, Ladys Mom said:

Today, RCL announced that they will start sailing one ship out of the Bahamas starting July 1.  They will require all adults to have been vaccinated for Covid, and all children will have to have a negative PCR test.  All cruises will be seven days with two days at their private island.  I don't understand why NCL has not made the same announcement.  Even if Regent, like Crystal, just did the seven day cruises out of the Bahamas, it would be a positive start.

Here is more information to include Celebrity and an earlier start date. Certainly appears to be good news.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/royal-caribbean-celebrity-north-america-cruise-restart/

Edited March 19, 2021 by labonnevie
correct error

[Ladys Mom]

1 hour ago, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

I hope that Regent can start sailing in Europe this summer. I also think that it’s time for the CDC to provide direction to the cruise lines.... so many people are waiting to hear. 
sheila

I would love Regent to restart cruising in Europe this summer, but I don't think it is remotely possible.  England, France, and Italy are locked down right now, and no country is as far as we are in getting people immunized.  Having cruises in the Caribbean is much safer if anything goes wrong.  In addition, all other cruise lines are requiring vaccination on crew and passengers.  I don't see why Regent would not want to start cruises since the bulk of their passengers are of an age that they have already been vaccinated.  I hope that if NCL decides to open up, they do it soon so I can cruise on the line I prefer, rather than a line that is available.

[ronrick1943]

21 hours ago, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

I hope that Regent can start sailing in Europe this summer. I also think that it’s time for the CDC to provide direction to the cruise lines.... so many people are waiting to hear. 
sheila

Hope---but what's going on now in Europe with Covid is good.  We canceled ourself a August cruise in Europe because it became a problem with side trips in Europe before the cruise. 

[Bellaggio Cruisers]

15 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

Hope---but what's going on now in Europe with Covid is good.  We canceled ourself a August cruise in Europe because it became a problem with side trips in Europe before the cruise. 

I agree but I was responding to someone who discussed Europe.
My main thought was that Regent should start following the other cruise lines, with sailings in Bahamas/ Caribbean, embarking outside of the United States.

Maybe if enough port cities in the US will begin complaining about the loss of this revenue..

Its time for Regent to begin planning for their/our future.
They/we cannot continue this waiting game. 
wake up Regent!
sheila

Edited March 20, 2021 by Bellaggio Cruisers

[xrvlcruiser]

Crystal Serenity is doing sixteen 7-day trips in the Bahamas, starting July 3rd, boarding in either Nassau on Saturday or Bimini on Sunday.

The ship stops in Harbour Island, Great Exuma, San Salvador and Long Island before it returns to Nassau.

Peggy

[Ladys Mom]

2 hours ago, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

I agree but I was responding to someone who discussed Europe.
My main thought was that Regent should start following the other cruise lines, with sailings in Bahamas/ Caribbean, embarking outside of the United States.

Maybe if enough port cities in the US will begin complaining about the loss of this revenue..

Its time for Regent to begin planning for their/our future.
They/we cannot continue this waiting game. 
wake up Regent!
sheila

Sheila, then I totally agree with you.  I am hoping Regent (NCL) have seen the light and will announce early this week that they are joining the other cruise lines. A number of Regent cruisers have booked Crystal cruises because there is nothing close to Regent.  I agree by not following the others, Regent (NCL) is losing a ton of revenue.  Interestingly, while the US came up with rules that no cruiser could be on a ship longer than seven days, many folks are doing BtoB or BtoBtoB.

[Caroldoll]

I correspond with one of the crew, entertainment and he was on the way back to the Voyager today.  I don't know where it is going.

 

[swansong]

Cunard and P&O are starting round Britain cruises this summer ( BTW the UK is ahead of the US in per capita vaccinations). Perhaps Regent could do the same.
Unfortunately I don’t think we will allow non nationals into the country anytime soon without quarantine so it would be restricted to British only and there may be not enough take up.
As Italy and France are locking down again and with the vaccination fiasco in the EU 
it also looks like we won’t be able to travel abroad this year for holidays so we are looking at our 5th cancelled cruise. We would consider a UK cruise if it was available.

[Pcardad]

Regent prob won't do these Carib runs but NCL will....he might be going there.

[loriva]

What are we to make of no Regent ship having completed progress toward crew transfer as mandated by the CDC--here's the link to the chart as provided in the Cruise Critic article:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/crew-disembarkations-commercial-travel.html

 

NCL seems to have many fewer ships making progress than the other two large groups, Carnaval or RCG.

 

8 hours ago, Caroldoll said:

I correspond with one of the crew, entertainment and he was on the way back to the Voyager today.  I don't know where it is going.

 

I was intrigued to see Caroldoll's post as we are scheduled to be on Voyager in September.  While I've been hopeful as Voyager's schedule had it outside U.S. waters and, thus, not needing to meet CDC's Conditional Sail Order conditions, many of its sailings in July and August touch the United Kingdom--and I think those are now "no goes" under British rulings.

 

Circling back to the original topic, yesterday we booked one of the new Crystal sailings in the Bahamas.  It will be our back-up plan if Regent cancels the Voyager sailing.

 

[Pcardad]

25 minutes ago, loriva said:

What are we to make of no Regent ship having completed progress toward crew transfer as mandated by the CDC--here's the link to the chart as provided in the Cruise Critic article:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/crew-disembarkations-commercial-travel.html

 

NCL seems to have many fewer ships making progress than the other two large groups, Carnaval or RCG.

 

I was intrigued to see Caroldoll's post as we are scheduled to be on Voyager in September.  While I've been hopeful as Voyager's schedule had it outside U.S. waters and, thus, not needing to meet CDC's Conditional Sail Order conditions, many of its sailings in July and August touch the United Kingdom--and I think those are now "no goes" under British rulings.

 

Circling back to the original topic, yesterday we booked one of the new Crystal sailings in the Bahamas.  It will be our back-up plan if Regent cancels the Voyager sailing.

 

 

I would assume it confirms what I heard that they aren't coming back to the USA anytime soon....NCL will on a limited basis but not Regent.

[flossie009]

On 3/19/2021 at 10:49 PM, Ladys Mom said:

.......... no country is as far as we are in getting people immunized.

 

Some countries are doing better than others in getting their populations vaccinated against covid-19; for a variety of reasons.

 

Unfortunately until vaccinations worldwide ramp up then international travel and "normal" cruising will be difficult.

It is good to see some cruise-lines planning limited operations for the Summer but we are looking forward to the multi-national, multi-country cruising with more interesting itineraries that we enjoyed up to the end of 2019.

  

Edited March 21, 2021 by flossie009

[flossie009]

17 hours ago, Ladys Mom said:

A number of Regent cruisers have booked Crystal cruises because there is nothing close to Regent.

It also appears that Crystal is doing a reasonable job in communication & marketing, despite its 2020 financial crisis leading to extreme frustration for its clients waiting for refunds.

It would be good to see an interview with JM, @MontyRSSC, outlining Regent's plans for the rest of 2021 (cf the recent upbeat, but candid, interview with the acting CEO of Crystal)

[DavidTheWonderer]

On 3/20/2021 at 4:56 PM, xrvlcruiser said:

Crystal Serenity ... stops in Harbour Island ...

The thought of sitting on the deck of a nice ship with a refreshing beverage in my hand sounds spectacular.  But my first choice wouldn't be the Bahamas in July.  And Harbour Island in particular is one of my favourites, but is very small.  I can't imagine the island coping with a large number of cruise passengers, even if the number is much less than the 1040 folks she is capable of carrying.
That all said, the cruise still sounds lovely.

[mrlevin]

RCL is now sailing out of Bermuda, too.  And it looks like Silver Moon will be sailing out of Piraeus this summer.  Where oh where is FdR?

[BBWC]

15 hours ago, mrlevin said:

RCL is now sailing out of Bermuda, too.  And it looks like Silver Moon will be sailing out of Piraeus this summer.  Where oh where is FdR?

It looks like at least NCL is getting ready.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24628-norwegian-frees-up-two-more-cruise-ships-for-redeployment.html

[mrlevin]

2 minutes ago, BBWC said:

It looks like at least NCL is getting ready.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24628-norwegian-frees-up-two-more-cruise-ships-for-redeployment.html

Great news!  Will be even better news when Oceania and Regent cancellations (and future new cruises) are added.

[flossie009]

57 minutes ago, BBWC said:

It looks like at least NCL is getting ready.

https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/24628-norwegian-frees-up-two-more-cruise-ships-for-redeployment.html

I see that NCL Encore is on the list for redeployment. At present she is in the port of Goa, India having reportedly repatriated NCLH crew from ships in the Med.

 

[flossie009]

Someone is getting creative with ideas for some of the cruise ships anchored off the south coast of England:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-56486784

 

A more positive idea than a previous suggestion to use them as prison ships 😱; but really hope that they can all return to their proper function of cruising to interesting worldwide locations asap.