Anyone know what is happening to 7/7 and 11/7 Anthem from Southampton

[Fabulous97]

Since the government announcement on Monday both cruises have disappeared . I can only assume it has to do with the reduced capacity until 19 July???

 

We are booked on the 7 July one so no idea if it will happen, only one hour drive from Southampton so not too bad.

 

I guess they decide do they sail with reduced numbers? Who know what they have sold? Do they bump people or cancel completely.

 

Was looking forward to a break but at least it has been sunny!  

[sgmn]

Fingers crossed it goes ahead without problems.  Come back and let us know how it goes and what you think of the new conditions,  I guess at the very least as social distance measures are still in place you may have to wear masks indoors 

[Disney-daft]

The 7th and 11th have not been on sale for a couple of weeks now. 
 

I am also concerned about what will happen as these were the 2 cruises that the free cabins were given away for. They gave away 999 cabins across the 2. Let’s say they averaged equal over the 2 so that’s 500 cabins per cruise spoken for which is already a 1000 people, not including people who have paid cash. 
 

I can’t see this ending well to be honest. If they cancel the free cabins, it will be a PR disaster cancelling the cruises for those working for the nhs etc. I don’t know if they’d consider sailing with no fare paying customers on board either? The only thing I can think is that maybe a lot of people didn’t take up the cruises they won but I can’t see this being likely...

[strickers]

They’ve allowed me to check in for the 07/07 but I’m not optimistic. 

[Fabulous97]

5 hours ago, sgmn said:

Fingers crossed it goes ahead without problems.  Come back and let us know how it goes and what you think of the new conditions,  I guess at the very least as social distance measures are still in place you may have to wear masks indoors 

The last email I got a week or so ago was PCR testing for twice jabbed paid for by RCI. Masks inside, extra cleaning, no buffet touching etc etc. I really think it comes down to pax numbers as the new rules until 19 July are 50% or 1k capacity whatever is lower.

[bernard301]

As it stands, the sailings are almost certainly overbooked (RCL have been telling people they were sold upto 50% capacity) and with 500 rooms (each with an average occupancy of 2ad 1 ch) given away for each of these sailings they sit well above the 1000 pax limit. There are of course still paying customers on board.

 

RC have been very slow in responding to any enquiries regarding what they will be doing about the change in numbers, without even issuing any kind of holding statement of "We are aware of the extension of capacity limits, we are now reviewing our position etc etc"

 

A well educated guess would be that all the 999 Competition prize winners would be offloaded and given FCC to the value of their cruises (somewhere in the region of £800 pp) and that paying customers will be left to enjoy their cruises.  I don't see this as bad press for the cruise line as they are in fact complying with a legal requirement and can lay blame directly at the governement.  The t's&c's of the competition allow the award of an alternative prize of the same value.

 

As a winner of a 999 cruise, this would really be a better prize for myself and my family, as it gives us more flexibility and cruise credit toward a longer cruise in a nice location (Caribbean vs Bay of Biscay anybody?"). This doesnt stop anyone who is already heavily invested in their cruise (ie through non refundable flights/hotels) from purchasing with their FCC

[little britain]

There is also the 2n taster cruise in July 4th, which is by invitation only.   It’s all gone quiet on that one too..
 

And to celebrate, we’re inviting you to dust off your flip flops in preparation for a two night shakedown event onboard Anthem of the Seas. For fully vaccinated guests, this is the holiday you’ve been waiting for and it’s setting sail from your home port of Southampton.

[bernard301]

I thought I had seen somewhere that that was only 1000 pax anyway

[ace2542]

6 hours ago, sgmn said:

I guess at the very least as social distance measures are still in place you may have to wear masks indoors

Especially when you consider UK Gov has no intention of vaccing children between 12-17 according to recent news articles and masks will be likely be on public transport forever and they mean forever according to leaked white paper. Because the R Number will always be above 1 and NHS cannot cope with a single case of Covid. Then yes quite possibly. Perhaps Anthem and Royal will withdraw from UK? Be interesting to see how NCL react given their pledge for fully vaccined sailings.

Edited June 16, 2021 by ace2542

[strickers]

The only thing we can be certain of at the moment is that nobody knows? There has to be a passenger number where the cost/benefit of even running isn’t worth it? 

[sowhat]

We have a cabin allocated and boarding  passes issued  last week for the stimulated  sailing on  the 4th of July

[strickers]

1 minute ago, sowhat said:

We have a cabin allocated and boarding  passes issued  last week for the stimulated  sailing on  the 4th of July

Same for us for the 7th. I will be disappointed, coordinating leave at short notice was hard work and we sail on my wife’s birthday. Would be a lovely treat for her vaccinating 1500 people!

[Guest BigRoger]

1 hour ago, strickers said:

The only thing we can be certain of at the moment is that nobody knows? There has to be a passenger number where the cost/benefit of even running isn’t worth it? 

Yep that why RC delayed so long in starting their cruising compared to MSC…. As Ben Bouldin so helpfully put it….. ‘cruising round the UK only has limited appeal’ he also said that the limitation of up to a thousand passengers was not attractive to RC (he didn’t actually say it was money but it was clearly….)

[Fabulous97]

Just received an email from RC to say that a number of passengers had been selected and you can apply to change your cruise on a first come first served basis via survey with cut off 21 June.

 

You can change to the other 5/6/7 or 8 night cruises in the same cabin class at no extra cost.

 

Or, you can ask for a full refund which they will give and reinstall your FCC.

 

Or, do nothing.

 

We are doing nothing as we have dog sitting etc all arranged. So looks like they will be sailing at the reduced capacity.

 

The other cruises start in school holidays, I think if you are flexible it is a good deal and will probably have a high take up. If the are offering it to the blue light cabins potentially you could get a great deal.

 

Email only cam through in last 10 minutes.

[bernard301]

I’ve just opted in to change to one of the 8 night sailings. It’s be interesting to see what happens to anyone who doesn’t opt in if they are still overbooked

[Fabulous97]

6 minutes ago, bernard301 said:

I’ve just opted in to change to one of the 8 night sailings. It’s be interesting to see what happens to anyone who doesn’t opt in if they are still overbooked

Great if you can! It doesn't fit our work and dog sitting schedule otherwise we would have considered it. I guess if they are still over they will have to work it out! 🙂

[strickers]

Same for me, shifting is not an option because I can’t rearrange things. It’ll be interesting to see how many shift, if I could I’d bite their arm off for an 8-nighter. 

[miaandmum]

Just to add, I was going to book the 15 July sailing but thought I would do it the next day as there were loads of available balcony cabins to chose from.  By the time I got around to it on Tuesday 15th (day after announcement) it had disappeared.  Called TA and because of Boris’ announcement sailing was now at capacity so could not add any more passengers.

[strickers]

Ironically I just received a request upgrade email? If I’m sailing and there are only 1000 on board I don’t really care which cabin I’m in?

[bernard301]

Seems that everyone has had it, I’d imagine scrabbling for revenue on the unsold rooms!

[Mc_Cruiser]

Same situation here, booked on 7th, already checked in, then today offered to move cruise and to bid on room upgrades within a few hours. 

[Fabulous97]

If I go to my app now it's all changed from yesterday. You can now check in, dining etc so I am guessing they had enough volunteers to move?

[Disney-daft]

2 hours ago, Fabulous97 said:

If I go to my app now it's all changed from yesterday. You can now check in, dining etc so I am guessing they had enough volunteers to move?

I hope they have.. but my app has been working for about 2 weeks now.. including being able to check in for a week or so.

[sgmn]

MSC also cutting capacity due delay in lifting covid restriction by the govt,  its made the news 

 

BBC News - 'We can't go on our much-needed cruise'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57527891

Edited June 18, 2021 by sgmn

[little britain]

51 minutes ago, sgmn said:

MSC also cutting capacity due delay in lifting covid restriction by the govt,  its made the news 

 

BBC News - 'We can't go on our much-needed cruise'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57527891

And it’s in the DM too.

Such a shame as MSc were the only company with the cojones to start sailing on May 20th.  They have carried 6000 people successfully on their first 6 cruises in adherence to the 1000 limit.  Everyone tested negative at port prior to boarding, everyone had temperature checks daily, everyone had a 2nd test halfway through the cruise…. And all their good work and any potential PR success stories shot down because of the governments moving of the goal posts.   I hope the article points out that every single one of the 12 cruise lines who jumped into the UK market are facing having to cancel and move people too…..