Caribbean cruises

[Riocca]

14 hours ago, Cliffholl55 said:

From what I can see it’s only cruises departing from the Uk. 

This is the relevant passage from the FCDO advice on international cruise travel:

International cruise ship travel means staying overnight for at least 1 night on a sea-going cruise ship with people from multiple households starting, calling or ending at ports outside of the UK.

 

As usual not the clearest of wording but it covers all bases, more importantly there’s now no blanket advice against all international cruise travel.

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cruise-ship-travel

Edited July 29, 2021 by Riocca

[Bertie Doe]

1 hour ago, Riocca said:

This is the relevant passage from the FCDO advice on international cruise travel:

International cruise ship travel means staying overnight for at least 1 night on a sea-going cruise ship with people from multiple households starting, calling or ending at ports outside of the UK.

 

As usual not the clearest of wording but it covers all bases, more importantly there’s now no blanket advice against all international cruise travel.

 

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cruise-ship-travel

It's a big leap forward. The captain could always bi-pass high risk or no-entry islands. You could claim against your Insurance for missed ports. There's a huge jump in premiums, pre-covid my annual worldwide cover (including USA and Caribbean) was a snip at £120.

[jd-mac]

It appears that any cruise to Havana  may not happen for the foreseeable future. Will Marella refund if this happens?

Edited August 3, 2021 by jd-mac

[kevcharben]

6 minutes ago, jd-mac said:

It appears that any cruise to Havana  may not happen for the foreseeable future. Will Marella refund if this happens?

Where did you read this?

[Bertie Doe]

15 minutes ago, jd-mac said:

It appears that any cruise to Havana  may not happen for the foreseeable future. Will Marella refund if this happens?

If Marella cancels the whole cruise then you get a full refund. If they substitute Havana for another port, you'll need to look at "missed port" on your travel insurance.

[jd-mac]

8 hours ago, kevcharben said:

 

 

8 hours ago, kevcharben said:

 

 

8 hours ago, kevcharben said:

Where did you read this?

 There seems to be a bit of a disruption going on in Cuba at the moment as well as a high covid alert. If that continues  no responsible cruise line is likely to enter Havana .

 

[Megabear2]

Looking at the cost of the PCR tests and port tests that are currently required, these could amount to around £600pp and the logistics would require use of wifi. The board has people with notification emails from Marella for testing requirements at passenger's expense. It seems the "Guinea pig" cruisers were mainly unaware they'd be required to pay these test costs.

[idh2019]

Today I found a paragraph somewhere on the Marella site (probably FAQs) that indicate passengers would not need a wifi package to send test results to lab.

 

I think only tests when getting on in the UK was ever covered by Marella. Tests during the cruise are passengers' costs (unless things change - too early to say?).

 

Cuba is on the red list so Marella will not be going there until it changes.

 

Suggest you wait until the balance is due and decide what to do at that point. Note that Marella have moved the free change date out to April 2022.

 

We are supposed to be on the repo from Palma to Barbados in October. Cape Verde is red so two extra sea days (9 in a row). Plus lots of testing for the Caribbean = £££££

 

Currently busy working out an alternative in 2022 for the free change. Definitely not paying the balance in a week's time.

[Riocca]

11 hours ago, idh2019 said:

 

Suggest you wait until the balance is due and decide what to do at that point. Note that Marella have moved the free change date out to April 2022.

 

As the fee free change range is now 1st November to 30th April 2022 which is very much the Caribbean season are Marella trying to persuade people to move bookings before they cancel? Would reduce the number of people they have to refund, our balance for January is due by mid October, but understand this could be flexible, we are interested in a March 2023 itinerary so have a decision to make.

[gramwold]

hi  idh2019      have Marella  given you all the details and tests you would need for the repo cruise, and the cost of all that, let alone the hassle. Takes a lot of the fun out of cruising.

[Riocca]

We’ve decided to ditch the Caribbean for 2022 in favour of a cruise & stay for March 2023 hopefully by then everything will have settled down and there won’t be the need to jump through so many hoops.

Going to try a Seacation on Princess next month and have a couple of Med cruises (not Marella) for 2022 so just trying to keep it simple for now.

[cinnamon]

3 hours ago, Riocca said:

We’ve decided to ditch the Caribbean for 2022 in favour of a cruise & stay for March 2023 hopefully by then everything will have settled down and there won’t be the need to jump through so many hoops.

Going to try a Seacation on Princess next month and have a couple of Med cruises (not Marella) for 2022 so just trying to keep it simple for now.

Hi Riocca, I've read your posts in the past on the Azamara boards,  I used to love Azamara with my late husband.  My Goddaughter expressed interest in a Marella cruise to the Caribbean in January.  So glad I read up here about the problems.  Those thoughts are now on hold.

However, I recently returned from a 3 night Seacation on Regal Princess with another friend.  We had a great time but the ship is huge when you are accustomed to the beautiful little Quest or Pursuit.

[Riocca]

4 minutes ago, cinnamon said:

Hi Riocca, I've read your posts in the past on the Azamara boards,  I used to love Azamara with my late husband.  My Goddaughter expressed interest in a Marella cruise to the Caribbean in January.  So glad I read up here about the problems.  Those thoughts are now on hold.

However, I recently returned from a 3 night Seacation on Regal Princess with another friend.  We had a great time but the ship is huge when you are accustomed to the beautiful little Quest or Pursuit.

Hi cinnamon, glad to hear you had a good time on Regal we’ve been on quite a few Princess cruises including Regal so we should be able to cope on Sky Princess but prefer the smaller ships so back to Azamara next year on Onward & Quest.

Originally our Marella booking was a New Year cruise which was in Madeira for the fireworks with friends in 2020, moved it to the Caribbean for January 2022  thinking it would be fine but it’s not to be. Now we’re back to the Canaries on the same ship in the same cabin for 2023, hopefully third time lucky.

[jd-mac]

Any update on the winter cruises. It seems that the Covid situation is not improving very much in the Caribbean so far ,Jamaica is the now on the alert list . Marella are not very informatif to customers with reservations  .  It looks like a cash grab is in the works if you cancel before final payment date??

[sweby]

Just read tonight that green and Amber travel zones may go altogether, but red zones would still be in place. Having spent much of the day looking at the cruises out of Jamaica, and desperately  wanting to book one, maybe this will be a move in the right direction. BUT several of the ports on these 2 cruises are on the current red list including Mexico, Cuba, and Costa Rica, so not sure how Tui will get the bookings. Surely if you are double jabbed many of these tourist destinations should be OK to enter. 

 

Some cruises are a worry as some ports are on the Amber list, but may go to the red list while you are away. As someone said, you will miss out those ports. BUT, what if its the homeport, Jamaica has been a cause  for concern. Sorry to ramble, I just need a good holiday. Like many others, I want my life back!

[Cruise lady 321]

On 9/9/2021 at 1:17 AM, sweby said:

Just read tonight that green and Amber travel zones may go altogether, but red zones would still be in place. Having spent much of the day looking at the cruises out of Jamaica, and desperately  wanting to book one, maybe this will be a move in the right direction. BUT several of the ports on these 2 cruises are on the current red list including Mexico, Cuba, and Costa Rica, so not sure how Tui will get the bookings. Surely if you are double jabbed many of these tourist destinations should be OK to enter. 

 

Some cruises are a worry as some ports are on the Amber list, but may go to the red list while you are away. As someone said, you will miss out those ports. BUT, what if its the homeport, Jamaica has been a cause  for concern. Sorry to ramble, I just need a good holiday. Like many others, I want my life back!

Totally agree with your sentiments here regarding worries about some of ports of call and Homeport . We’ve just come off MSC Virtuosa - thankfully we’ve since been testing negative - but many weren’t so lucky and I’m sure if they’d had to do a PCR test onboard 2 days before disembarking - as we’ll have to do presumably in order to fly home - many of them would have been positive whilst still onboard. 
The thought of being put into a hospital or healthcare facility in Jamaica , possibly with little internet etc is more than enough to make us look at cancelling now and trying to use deposit on another cruise 🤷🏻‍♀️🙄. So gutting . 

[kevcharben]

Ive just bit the bullet and paid my balance for my cruise on Explorer 2 in December.

 

I like others will just have to wait and see what the next few months brings

[MAC_1867]

Myself and my partner were originally on the Exotic Explorer and the Pride of Panama for early March 2021.

 

This was cancelled and we moved to January 2022, however, we wanted the same cruise but this was not possible due to the Flavours of the Caribbean being sandwiched in-between the above cruises. To go on our original cruise we have now got a 2 week + 1 week cruise.

 

We've paid £5500.00 and have another £3000.00 to pay before the start of November 2021.

 

Ive just spoken to Marella and they will cancel the cruise if the home port (Jamaica) is placed on the red list, they wont visit any red list countries or ports in said red list countries.

 

As of today (mid Sept) here are the countries on all 3 cruises 

 

Jamaica - Amber

Honduras - Amber

Guatamala - Amber

Belize - Amber 

Mexico - Red

Cuba - Red

Colombia - Red

Panama - Red

Costa Rica - Red

Cayman Islands - Green (possibly moving to Amber)

 

We are a young couple 25 & 34 and the reason we enjoy cruising is for the different countries, we don't really drink that much and are usually in bed for 10:30 and up at 6am to enjoy the destination we have arrived at. My worry is being stuck on a ship for long periods of time, ports being cancelled or worse still staying in Jamaica longer than needed (Ive spent an extended amount of time there already)

 

We are really unsure what to do, i would probably take a refund now but this is not possible unless Marella cancel.

 

 

[MAC_1867]

Marella have advise me to pay the remaining monies at the last minute which allows us to move the holiday 14 days before departure, the problem is i don't really like the idea of nearly £9000.00 tied up in holidays that we don't know when and if we can go on.

[rodndonna]

Are Marella still offering these cruises?

 

We were booked on Exotic Explorer for March 2022 through a Canadian tour operator. We cancelled about a month ago (to make space to rebook another cancelled holiday into the March 2022 timeslot),  but have noticed just today that the Canadian operator has removed the Marella Caribbean cruises. They were removed sometime in the last week I believe. 

 

[bishop84]

6 hours ago, rodndonna said:

Are Marella still offering these cruises?

 

We were booked on Exotic Explorer for March 2022 through a Canadian tour operator. We cancelled about a month ago (to make space to rebook another cancelled holiday into the March 2022 timeslot),  but have noticed just today that the Canadian operator has removed the Marella Caribbean cruises. They were removed sometime in the last week I believe. 

 

Still available on the TUI UK website. Maybe they have restricted them to UK Cruisers only?

 

[rodndonna]

30 minutes ago, bishop84 said:

Still available on the TUI UK website. Maybe they have restricted them to UK Cruisers only?

 

 

You may be right - it certainly simplifies things for TUI if all their cruise passengers are coming in from the UK and on their flights. Could be a decision on the part of the Canadian operator as well - if the bookings were low or they want to limit embarkation ports to US only. The only other cruises they are offering now are starting from US ports (Florida).

[squink]

On 9/15/2021 at 5:51 PM, MAC_1867 said:

Myself and my partner were originally on the Exotic Explorer and the Pride of Panama for early March 2021.

 

This was cancelled and we moved to January 2022, however, we wanted the same cruise but this was not possible due to the Flavours of the Caribbean being sandwiched in-between the above cruises. To go on our original cruise we have now got a 2 week + 1 week cruise.

 

We've paid £5500.00 and have another £3000.00 to pay before the start of November 2021.

 

Ive just spoken to Marella and they will cancel the cruise if the home port (Jamaica) is placed on the red list, they wont visit any red list countries or ports in said red list countries.

 

As of today (mid Sept) here are the countries on all 3 cruises 

 

Jamaica - Amber

Honduras - Amber

Guatamala - Amber

Belize - Amber 

Mexico - Red

Cuba - Red

Colombia - Red

Panama - Red

Costa Rica - Red

Cayman Islands - Green (possibly moving to Amber)

 

We are a young couple 25 & 34 and the reason we enjoy cruising is for the different countries, we don't really drink that much and are usually in bed for 10:30 and up at 6am to enjoy the destination we have arrived at. My worry is being stuck on a ship for long periods of time, ports being cancelled or worse still staying in Jamaica longer than needed (Ive spent an extended amount of time there already)

 

We are really unsure what to do, i would probably take a refund now but this is not possible unless Marella cancel.

 

 

My wife and I are currently looking specifically at a cruise and stay holiday to the Caribbean with TUI in late Feb'21 doing the Taste of the Tropics. I have reviewed the itinerary in the same way as MAC_1867, as of 15/09/21 update;

Barbados - green

St Vincent - Amber

Martinique - Amber

Guadeloupe - Amber

St Lucia - Amber

Grenada - Green

Trinidad - Red

 

But these are UK classifications and only useful for the return journey back into the UK , and currently we don't have to isolate from Amber countries. Which means obviously we cant visit Trinidad & Tobago.

 

With a cruise and stay I'm am concerned how the testing regime might work;

If the current testing requirements applied we would be tested at immigration and then need to isolate in our designated hotel, which in this case would be the cruise ship. Do we isolate on the ship or are we a UK 'bubble' of some kind.

Do we test according to the individual island requirements each time for excursions or individual visits ashore.

For the stay part (second week) do we now conform to Barbados immigration testing , PCR test at the cruise port , direct transfer to hotel and isolate in the hotel room pending negative result (hopefully, result within 24 hours).

 

To some extent I'll take a chance as things change either way but there doesn't seem to be any clear advise around this on the Marella/TUI web site.

Thanks in advance for your comments

[Cliffholl55]

We were going to book Dis 1 for November in Caribbean but having seen all the tests for every island we did not bother. Every island you need a pcr test and who is going to pay for it let alone all the hassle with paperwork. It’s ment to be a holiday.  Thinking Marella and PO have rushed into cruises in the Caribbean. Can’t see Explorer going out there as most islands/countries on red and will be for the foreseeable.

[MAC_1867]

Well, thats our been cancelled.