Summit - Transatlantic August 1st

[ShipFan13]

Hello all,

 

I was looking at the Summit, which is scheduled to disembark New Jersey

to Southampton England, on August 1 transatlantic. 

 

Its listed as a 14 day cruise and I would like to very much book this if it goes

but I thought that the CDC only allowed voyages outside of the US that are 7 days or shorter?

 

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by ShipFan13
spacing

[cruisestitch]

No one knows what is going to happen with this cruise. It has so many problematic elements. It is still showing a stop in Halifax. Canada won’t allow that. It is too long. The CDC won’t allow that. It ends in the UK. What about quarantine there? Many who are on this cruise, or rather were on this cruise, have already canceled.  Some are holding out, waiting for Celebrity to cancel it in order to get the 125% FCC.  There may be a few passengers who believe that this cruise will happen. It is looking more discouraging every day. If you can book it for a very cheap price, with a completely refundable deposit, go for it. But I don’t think it’s very likely that you will actually be able to take this cruise.

Edited May 6, 2021 by cruisestitch

[WestLakeGirl]

I think Summit is scheduled to embark from New Jersey and disembark in Southampton on the 1 August  itinerary.

 

It would then turn around and embark in Southampton and disembark in New Jersey.

 

Probably neither of those will take place.

[denatravels]

1 hour ago, WestLakeGirl said:

I think Summit is scheduled to embark from New Jersey and disembark in Southampton on the 1 August  itinerary.

 

It would then turn around and embark in Southampton and disembark in New Jersey.

 

Probably neither of those will take place.

It disembarks on return in Boston

[WestLakeGirl]

Ah yes, I see that it returns to Boston.  If ...... if ..... If

[LGW59]

18 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

Ah yes, I see that it returns to Boston.  If ...... if ..... If

On the website the Aug 1 cruise embarks in NJ and disembarks in Southhampton, nothing in Boston, still it looks like a lovely itinerary.

[WestLakeGirl]

The August 1 trip is intended to be followed immediately by a westbound transatlantic, which would end in Boston (not New Jersey as I erroneously wrote earlier).

[Northern Aurora]

On 5/6/2021 at 12:19 PM, cruisestitch said:

No one knows what is going to happen with this cruise. It has so many problematic elements. .......

 

K: Were you booked on this cruise?  I haven't checked the roll calls for either the August 1st or August 15th sailings so have no idea.

 

In any event, my husband and I were booked on both the August 1st (Cape Liberty to Southampton) with a turnaround day in Southhampton and the return to Boston (August 15th sailing).  I agree with cruisestitch. In April I called the handy dandy shoreside concierge phone number that we received with we became Zenith members of the Captain's Club.  The "official line" I received that it is still "a go."  But there are simply too many issues to be resolved before these cruises could happen.  I moved our deposit to another set of B2B cruises in 2022.

[cruisestitch]

Will there be any way that this cruise, and one following, could be broken up into smaller Cruises less than seven days in length?

 

It seems to me that when the CDC impose the seven day rule, they were thinking that all cruises were round-trip, Miami to Miami, etc.  We already know that the powers that be in that agency seem clueless when it comes to what really happens on a ship, so maybe they did not know that there were cruises such as this one and other transatlantics, all more than seven days long.

 

  It’s easy enough to just skip the Halifax stop, but what about the seven day rule?  
 

Can anyone come up with any way to save this cruise?
 

 

[wrk2cruise]

26 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

Can anyone come up with any way to save this cruise?

 

No

 

I guess if they happen to get sailing 7 day itineraries to Bermuda before 8/1 they could add a few more later in the summer.  But they still didn't fill any of the schedule opening from the cancelled NE/Canada cruises and the Boston to Miami repositioning so who knows.

[ipeeinthepool]

49 minutes ago, wrk2cruise said:

I guess if they happen to get sailing 7 day itineraries to Bermuda before 8/1 they could add a few more later in the summer.  But they still didn't fill any of the schedule opening from the cancelled NE/Canada cruises and the Boston to Miami repositioning so who knows.

 

Unless Canada opens it's ports for the fall foliage cruises, this is the last straw for the transatlantic cruises.  No way will they staff up the Summit for 2 cruises and then park her for 2 months until they start the Caribbean sailings.

 

FWIW, I just canceled the Aug 15 return leg an hour ago. 

[Fouremco]

32 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Unless Canada opens it's ports for the fall foliage cruises, this is the last straw for the transatlantic cruises.  No way will they staff up the Summit for 2 cruises and then park her for 2 months until they start the Caribbean sailings.

 

FWIW, I just canceled the Aug 15 return leg an hour ago. 

After being one of the safest provinces in Canada, Nova Scotia is currently experiencing by far its  highest number of new cases since the onset of the pandemic. Even if deliberations with the US led to Canada standing down on the current cruise ship ban, Nova Scotia is unlikely to allow anyone ashore to enjoy the Fall colours. Starting 10 May 2021, you can only enter Nova Scotia for essential travel or if you’re a permanent resident of Nova Scotia, a restriction that might be lifted by the Autumn, but who wants to take the chance?

[WestLakeGirl]

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Will there be any way that this cruise, and one following, could be broken up into smaller Cruises less than seven days in length?

 

It seems to me that when the CDC impose the seven day rule, they were thinking that all cruises were round-trip, Miami to Miami, etc.  We already know that the powers that be in that agency seem clueless when it comes to what really happens on a ship, so maybe they did not know that there were cruises such as this one and other transatlantics, all more than seven days long.

 

  It’s easy enough to just skip the Halifax stop, but what about the seven day rule?  
 

Can anyone come up with any way to save this cruise?
 

 

could they start it from somewhere else, say, Bermuda?

[ipeeinthepool]

46 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

After being one of the safest provinces in Canada, Nova Scotia is currently experiencing by far its  highest number of new cases since the onset of the pandemic. Even if deliberations with the US led to Canada standing down on the current cruise ship ban, Nova Scotia is unlikely to allow anyone ashore to enjoy the Fall colours. Starting 10 May 2021, you can only enter Nova Scotia for essential travel or if you’re a permanent resident of Nova Scotia, a restriction that might be lifted by the Autumn, but who wants to take the chance?

 

I agree.  I never expected Canada to open it's ports for these fall cruises, however I would have thought Celebrity would have canceled these two transatlantic cruises long ago.

[ShipFan13]

1 hour ago, ipeeinthepool said:

would have canceled these two transatlantic cruises long ago.

 

Its so close now. Really late if they are going to cancel now.

[cruisestitch]

I am surprised that they are still selling it.

[BigAl94]

Won't happen.

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

I agree.  I never expected Canada to open it's ports for these fall cruises, however I would have thought Celebrity would have canceled these two transatlantic cruises long ago.

I really have no idea on how cancellation decisions are made within Celebrity. When the first Canadian cruise ship ban was implemented in March of last year, Celebrity took weeks and weeks to cancel cruises on both coasts. They knew these cruise would never sail, but delayed cancellations, usually until after final payment. The same delay occurred with many other cruises unaffected by the Canadian ban.

 

Back then, cruise lines were faced with problems of a magnitude they had never prepared for. Through much of last year, delays, even with easy decisions, can perhaps be understood. But over a year later, the process for cancelling cruises should be down pat. I don't think that the real question is whether Celebrity still thinks the cruise is a possibility, but rather why is Celebrity delaying the inevitable announcement?

[cruisestitch]

And at what point does it become fraudulent to sell a product knowing that you cannot deliver it?

 

Or do they have some sort of plan, at this point undisclosed to us, for resolving the dilemmas?

 

Not the stop in Halifax, which is easily taken care of by simply avoiding the Canadian port, but the 14 day length.

 

 

[ipeeinthepool]

19 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I really have no idea on how cancellation decisions are made within Celebrity. When the first Canadian cruise ship ban was implemented in March of last year, Celebrity took weeks and weeks to cancel cruises on both coasts. They knew these cruise would never sail, but delayed cancellations, usually until after final payment. The same delay occurred with many other cruises unaffected by the Canadian ban.

 

Back then, cruise lines were faced with problems of a magnitude they had never prepared for. Through much of last year, delays, even with easy decisions, can perhaps be understood. But over a year later, the process for cancelling cruises should be down pat. I don't think that the real question is whether Celebrity still thinks the cruise is a possibility, but rather why is Celebrity delaying the inevitable announcement?

 

The only thing that makes sense to me is that they wait until after final payment to cancel in order funnel payments to the travel agents.   The travel agents get paid when final payment is made.  Celebrity needs to keep the travel agents around so they can continue to service existing bookings as well as be there to make new reservations.  If they didn't support the travel agents, many would disappear leaving a lot of clients without anyone to handle their reservations.  As much as many of us hate it that they wait so long to cancel cruises, the alternative with many travel agents disappearing would be a lot worse.

[cruisestitch]

Final payment for the August 1 cruise was a few days ago.

[ipeeinthepool]

36 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

Final payment for the August 1 cruise was a few days ago.

 

Final payment for the Aug 15 cruise is May 17 with Celebrity, although TA's may request payment a little earlier.

[cruisestitch]

If this cruise should happen to go, and I think it’s highly unlikely that it will, looking ahead to its arrival in Southampton and wanting to go directly to Heathrow and then out of the country back to the US, how would that work with the current requirements for quarantines etc. both the UK end and the US end? What is the current situation re: travel ?  It’s hard to keep up with what’s going on with air travel.....

Edited May 9, 2021 by cruisestitch

[Turtles06]

5 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

If this cruise should happen to go, and I think it’s highly unlikely that it will, looking ahead to its arrival in Southampton and wanting to go directly to Heathrow and then out of the country back to the US, how would that work with the current requirements for quarantines etc. both the UK end and the US end? What is the current situation re: travel ?  It’s hard to keep up with what’s going on with air travel.....

I agree it’s unlikely to go.  One way to keep up to date on the travel restrictions is by periodically checking the respective country’s relevant websites:

 

https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

 

 

[gerelmx]

In the Summit August 15 Iceland and Greenland roll call, BlairsvilleCruiseGirl posted that the crew was vaccinated at Miami on May 6