October onwards cruisers…

[tring]

2 minutes ago, ToxM said:

 

I think the lead up to the time when cruises are supposed to go back to normal is what the issue is. Staycations within an enclosed bubble are very different from cruises going to different countries - especially with the Delta variant making things so uncertain at this point. 

 

From what Molecrochip has said, it sounds like "bubbled excursions will be around for some time, so I would not see anything else happening in the autumn and perhaps a while after that.  What I find difficult is not so much having to do an excursion, but that the ones being offered from current cruises seem to just be coach rides and even at photo stops, people apparently have to stay inside the coach and take pics from there. 

 

We are booked on a five night MSC cruise soon, so will get a good idea of how we will feel being so restricted, before we pay the balance for a couple of 14 nighters on Princess and Fred which we have booked for later this year.  We are thinking a chance to have some time in a warmer climate may be something which makes that worthwhile, but actually being in that situation will be a better guide IMO, if only for a shorter time.  Also depends what other options are available and how easily we could travel abroad for a land hol, without changes to FOCD and other Gov rules.  

[ToxM]

5 minutes ago, tring said:

 

From what Molecrochip has said, it sounds like "bubbled excursions will be around for some time, so I would not see anything else happening in the autumn and perhaps a while after that.  What I find difficult is not so much having to do an excursion, but that the ones being offered from current cruises seem to just be coach rides and even at photo stops, people apparently have to stay inside the coach and take pics from there. 

 

We are booked on a five night MSC cruise soon, so will get a good idea of how we will feel being so restricted, before we pay the balance for a couple of 14 nighters on Princess and Fred which we have booked for later this year.  We are thinking a chance to have some time in a warmer climate may be something which makes that worthwhile, but actually being in that situation will be a better guide IMO, if only for a shorter time.  Also depends what other options are available and how easily we could travel abroad for a land hol, without changes to FOCD and other Gov rules.  

 

By bubbled I mean enclosed on the cruise ship for the duration 🙂

 

Cruise lines don’t have the issues we are now starting to see with the Greenock incident with a staycation - when “normal” (I use that term with extreme caution at this point) cruising starts, entering into another sovereign state’s waters/docking will be a very very different ballgame. 

 

People are really going to have to start managing their expectations about cancelled ports in the future. 

[Son of Anarchy]

35 minutes ago, tring said:

 

From what Molecrochip has said, it sounds like "bubbled excursions will be around for some time, so I would not see anything else happening in the autumn and perhaps a while after that.  What I find difficult is not so much having to do an excursion, but that the ones being offered from current cruises seem to just be coach rides and even at photo stops, people apparently have to stay inside the coach and take pics from there. 

 

Some of the excursions for our December cruise are beach transfer or ?? town on your own.  Doubtful that these can be regarded as bubbled excursions, so will be interesting to see what happens regarding these nearer the time.  I think we might be spending more time on the open decks in port!

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, ToxM said:

 

I think the lead up to the time when cruises are supposed to go back to normal is what the issue is. Staycations within an enclosed bubble are very different from cruises going to different countries - especially with the Delta variant making things so uncertain at this point. 

Totally agree but I am more optimistic than most on here, yes there’s a chance that the cruise may not go ahead, there’s also a chance that some destinations might be missed also a chance that someone might have COVID, also a chance a passing asteroid might wipe out human kind so there’s some of the events that might happen, but I will still look forward to my cruise.

[ToxM]

Just now, Bazrat said:

Totally agree but I am more optimistic than most on here, yes there’s a chance that the cruise may not go ahead, there’s also a chance that some destinations might be missed also a chance that someone might have COVID, also a chance a passing asteroid might wipe out human kind so there’s some of the events that might happen, but I will still look forward to my cruise.

 

That would be a real downer - on the A34 on my way to the cruise and the radio pops up with an alert that there’s about to be an ELE (extinction level event) in 20 minutes!

 

I’m not really concerned about the cruise going ahead in October - I just want a place where we can keep each other updated. 

 

I either have a lovely cruise for my anniversary in a suite and hopefully see the Northern Lights and have some lovely food that we don’t have to cook ourselves and clean up after (bliss!) or I get a refund and pay off at least one of my cruises for next year. 

 

It’s all a win!

[Bazrat]

3 minutes ago, ToxM said:

 

That would be a real downer - on the A34 on my way to the cruise and the radio pops up with an alert that there’s about to be an ELE (extinction level event) in 20 minutes!

 

I’m not really concerned about the cruise going ahead in October - I just want a place where we can keep each other updated. 

 

I either have a lovely cruise for my anniversary in a suite and hopefully see the Northern Lights and have some lovely food that we don’t have to cook ourselves and clean up after (bliss!) or I get a refund and pay off at least one of my cruises for next year. 

 

It’s all a win!

Same here it’s our anniversary as well so looking forward to it

[zap99]

1 hour ago, ToxM said:

 

That would be a real downer - on the A34 on my way to the cruise and the radio pops up with an alert that there’s about to be an ELE (extinction level event) in 20 minutes!

 

I’m not really concerned about the cruise going ahead in October - I just want a place where we can keep each other updated. 

 

I either have a lovely cruise for my anniversary in a suite and hopefully see the Northern Lights and have some lovely food that we don’t have to cook ourselves and clean up after (bliss!) or I get a refund and pay off at least one of my cruises for next year. 

 

It’s all a win!

We use the M3/M27. We have never had an ELE alert. Best advice is turn the radio off ,or change route. That way you can avoid the heartbreak.

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, zap99 said:

That way you can avoid the heartbreak.

I dont think that an ELE event is sufficiently serious for you to be heartbroken. 

[ToxM]

1 hour ago, wowzz said:

I dont think that an ELE event is sufficiently serious for you to be heartbroken. 

 

If there’s going to be an ELE event if it can be start of April next year that would be good as I will be in the middle of the Atlantic on a TA and with enough notice I can make sure I am blotto enough to not notice the end of the world 🙂

[P&O SUE]

I moved our 14 night Med cruise from this September to June next year. One of the reasons was that our longest cruise before this was 12 nights so this cruise is special to us. I don’t want to have ports cancelled or restrictions on going ashore. That’s why I would consider a round Britain cruise in the Autumn as I would know what I was signing up for. The Med cruise was a lot of money for us just to miss lots of ports. Be interesting to see what happens.

[tring]

2 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

I moved our 14 night Med cruise from this September to June next year. One of the reasons was that our longest cruise before this was 12 nights so this cruise is special to us. I don’t want to have ports cancelled or restrictions on going ashore. That’s why I would consider a round Britain cruise in the Autumn as I would know what I was signing up for. The Med cruise was a lot of money for us just to miss lots of ports. Be interesting to see what happens.

 

Princess are doing a round UK in the autumn as part of the normal cruise timetable and I am sure I have seen others as well.  Perhaps time to vary the provider.  I still expect some itineraries for then to be changed to less "risky" ones though, so would not be at all surprised if similar are put on nearer the time by a number of cruise lines.  Probably more likely to have port calls as well.

Edited June 11, 2021 by tring

[majortom10]

14 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Princess are doing a round UK in the autumn as part of the normal cruise timetable and I am sure I have seen others as well.  Perhaps time to vary the provider.  I still expect some itineraries for then to be changed to less "risky" ones though, so would not be at all surprised if similar are put on nearer the time by a number of cruise lines.  Probably more likely to have port calls as well.

To my knowledge Princess are doing only 1 British cruise on Sky Princess in October as a normal cruise and it is only up the west side of the UK not a full roundtrip  which they normally do all summer repeatedly of 12nts duration and have done it for many years.

[tring]

49 minutes ago, majortom10 said:

To my knowledge Princess are doing only 1 British cruise on Sky Princess in October as a normal cruise and it is only up the west side of the UK not a full roundtrip  which they normally do all summer repeatedly of 12nts duration and have done it for many years.

 

Yes, the Oct one is only 7 nights, but Sue was originally asking about staycations, which would be shorter cruises.

 

The regular Princess ones would have had a lot of non UK passengers I suspect, so they would not have the call for them this year.

[PJ's]

Hi everyone - what a wonderful thread to start. We are booked on Ventura to sail to the Canaries on 23 November 21 (in a suite) and have to pay balance at the end of August. We booked direct with P&O and are so looking forward to this cruise as last year was a bitter disappointment for us. We had a cruise cancelled which was booked to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary. I also had a major birthday and therefore missed out again with not being able to cruise. If the cruise is cancelled (please no...no....) then we will transfer it to 2022. Here's hoping....fingers & toes crossed.

[Adawn47]

Well we finally stopped being optimists and became realists. Our balance due date for the October cruise was getting closer but we had decided to hold out until June 21st to see how things were going. After the recent news, covid cases again rising and the possibility of the 'freedom date' moving back to maybe July, we decided to cancel and move to next year. We're now booked on Aurora's 18 night Mediterranean cruise October 2022.

Maybe third time lucky🤞

Avril

[Eddie99]

Let’s hope Avril

 

I must say, having given up on 2021 a long time ago, there is some benefit in “not having a dog in this fight”, as the saying goes.  No stress, no “will we/won’t we”, and the freedom to make other arrangements as we see fit

 

It’ll be interesting to hear about the seacations.  I hope those who go will have a lovely time.  

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

Well we finally stopped being optimists and became realists. Our balance due date for the October cruise was getting closer but we had decided to hold out until June 21st to see how things were going. After the recent news, covid cases again rising and the possibility of the 'freedom date' moving back to maybe July, we decided to cancel and move to next year. We're now booked on Aurora's 18 night Mediterranean cruise October 2022.

Maybe third time lucky🤞

Avril

I think it feels better once the decision is made.

 

I moved early on my Queen Victoria cruise that is due for 1st October, and it was a weight off my mind. 
 

If I hadn’t already moved the cruise, I think I’d be sweating a bit now, as the deposit alone was a 4 figure sum. At this point I’d have preferred to have my money back. I was due to have paid my TA on 5th June. I’m fairly sure they would have delayed this by 2 - 3 weeks, but the date Cunard would have wanted the money is 3rd July and this is fast approaching. I would have hung on a bit longer, as Cunard have been slightly quicker off the mark with cancellations than P&O, but I’d definitely be anxious by now.

 

it was bad enough waiting for my Iona cruise to be cancelled in March, and that was a relatively small amount of money involved.

 

 

[Beckett]

3 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Well we finally stopped being optimists and became realists. Our balance due date for the October cruise was getting closer but we had decided to hold out until June 21st to see how things were going. After the recent news, covid cases again rising and the possibility of the 'freedom date' moving back to maybe July, we decided to cancel and move to next year. We're now booked on Aurora's 18 night Mediterranean cruise October 2022.

Maybe third time lucky🤞

Avril

I hope so Avril. You must be very disappointed though. Be well and take care. Jane.x

[ToxM]

I’m worried about October, and am now 70/30 on it being cancelled if I am honest, which is a real shame as it was cancelled and rebooked from last October already. I am sort of resigned to it going. Anniversary trip in a suite and my sister and brother in law are also booked in a suite so it was going to be an extra fun time. 

 

I am fretting about March which is my 50th bday trip, biz class to barbados, 4 days in barbados then 14 day TA in a suite on Oceania then 2 days in Barcelona …. I will be absolutely devastated if we lose this one as I have been planning it for a long time and all aspects of it were bargains and it will be a nightmare to get sorted as it was all booked separately. 

 

If that is cancelled then my April trip which is a cancelled trip from this year on Oceania with my mum will also be cancelled. This was a trip to celebrate her recovering from a life altering operation and she has been so patient.

 

It’s funny how we use cruises to celebrate things - maybe P&O are onto something rebranding the formal nights into celebration nights. 

 

I just wanted to get it all out so thank you for reading. Sometimes I think sharing concerns just helps. I hope the staycationers get on their cruises so they can tell us all about it.

 

 

[Windsurfboy]

I've two cruises for 2022

 

One I'm certain will be cancelled,  South Africa to UK in April paid in full (FCC), can't move it as nothing to move it to till 2023 comes out.

 

Med and Black sea in May , which I think is 50:50,  but they won't want payment till Jan.

 

I thought when we booked 2022 it was all so far away things would be fine. But now I don't know when uncertainty will end.

[Eddie99]

Nobody knows.

I’m sorry for you both - and everyone 🙁

 

P&O, the shore staff, the ships crews here, bobbing in Weymouth Bay for ever, the former crew waiting in their own countries for recall ...

[Windsurfboy]

Yes our problems are minor, I think the modern phrase is "1st world problems." 

 

As you say hope for crews sake , who'll desperately need the money , that things improve  sooner rather than later

[ToxM]

1 hour ago, Windsurfboy said:

Yes our problems are minor, I think the modern phrase is "1st world problems." 

 

As you say hope for crews sake , who'll desperately need the money , that things improve  sooner rather than later

Oh I agree these are definitely 1st world problems. 

[Britboys]

8 hours ago, ToxM said:

...It's funny how we use cruises to celebrate things - maybe P&O are onto something rebranding the formal nights into celebration nights...

 

I thought they had changed Formal Nights to Gala Nights? Are they changing them yet again???

[jeanlyon]

23 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Well we finally stopped being optimists and became realists. Our balance due date for the October cruise was getting closer but we had decided to hold out until June 21st to see how things were going. After the recent news, covid cases again rising and the possibility of the 'freedom date' moving back to maybe July, we decided to cancel and move to next year. We're now booked on Aurora's 18 night Mediterranean cruise October 2022.

Maybe third time lucky🤞

Avril

See you on board Avril!!